Tales of Chaos: God of Luck
by Gobeul
Summary: When the Titans are actually asked to take in a new member, strange things start happening...starts off lousy, but gets better with influences from Invisibles and Hitch Hiker's Guide. Chap27: The Titans crash on an alien planet that seems oddly familiar..
1. Politics

**Tales of Chaos: The God of Luck**

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, Magic: the Gathering or even mayor Tilton (he's from ' The Mask', which I don't own either, in case you're wondering)  
The idea of chance mages is not mine either, that's based on anexisting philosphy. The name of the tv-show Gone Gamin' is just something that popped in my head. It's probably been used already, so it's not mine to claim.

**WARNING: If you don't like Magic: the Gathering you're really gonna hate this. You have been warned!**

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Chapter 1: Politics  
(Set after the episode 'Can I keep him?')

_Welcome to a place called Jump City, a great metropolis under the leadership of one mayor Tilton, who resigned and moved from his former town on the count of some troubles with a green-faced superhero/lunatic. It is also the home of a team of superheroes called the Teen Titans. But more importantly, it is the home of a very powerful chance mage. This is his story._

It was just another day at the T-tower; Beast Boy was getting his head handed to him on the Gamestation, Raven was meditating on the rooftop, Starfire was trying to feed Silky some leftover curtains and Robin was about to go training when the videophone rang. Mayor Tilton did not look too pleasant.

_Fact of Improbability: the videophone is a completely useless invention: it makes lying over the phone far too complicated, ruins the surprise when someone has good (or bad) news and makes it a lot more difficult to seem interested when contacted by gossips and in-laws. It therefore remains a mystery why every single civilisation insists on jumping this particular technological hurdle before dealing with problems such as famine and poverty_.

_Needless to say, the videophone is the second most common cause of war in the multiverse. For the record, the first is a creature called the Babel Fish. But I digress. _

"Ah, mayor", Robin said, quickly putting on a friendly smile, "what seems to be the problem?"

"Right now I have two problems, dear Robin", Tilton replied a tad menacingly," the first being your new pet" this last word was accompanied with a bit of a spit, just to menace a bit more.

"Why did you not report this?" Tilton demanded. "You know all additions to your numbers need to be reported to me and to the chief of police ASAP."

"Well, for one thing, two of our members kept it pretty well hidden for quite a long time, so I didn't really have any say in it" Robin replied, in a defensive tone.

"You know the rules, Robin."

"Yes, yes, I know, all changes in numbers need to be reported to the proper authorities, all weapons inventories must be in order at all times and all of our purchased equipment is either relevant in crime fighting or coming out of our own pockets. In return, we are not required to go to school as our backgrounds prove we are properly educated or simply unfit to go to school in the first place. Beyond that, we are subject to all rights and duties of minors."

Yes, Robin had studied that particular text quite well, which had allowed him and his friends to fight crime without being hindered by petty things like homework. He deliberately neglected to mention the fact that the document in question also made Jump City a place that fell outside of the jurisdiction of the Justice League. Tilton still thought Robin had never read that small print.

"In any event," Tilton continued," your new pet worm is not my main problem. This is." He said as he sent some photos and newspaper articles to the Tower. "You may want to see this on your large screen."

After kindly asking Cyborg and Beast Boy to cease their game, the articles appeared on the main screen. Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire did not know what to make of it all right away. The articles were arranged in chronological order, the oldest ones first. The whole thing was quite unclear.

"New star rising in gaming circles?" Starfire enquired.

"Unprecedented lucky streak in Limited?" Beast Boy asked.

"Local champ accused of cheating?" Cyborg followed suit.

"Droid cleanup on 58th Street?" Robin said, surprised at the fact that this article was written a short time after their last fight with Slade, the one were they lost Terra. He was even more surprised at the last article, which said the following:

"Shooting at St-John's catholic school.  
Although sources confirm that there have been gunshots at St-John's, the police will not divulge any data as to the cause of the shooting, or even who was involved. There are no reports of casualties or even wounded, yet the whole of the media is being kept ignorant. All the pupils have been told to remain silent while the matter is being further investigated. "

"And what does this have to do with us?" Robin asked, dreading the answer. If the mayor wanted him to investigate the matter personally, he'd have to infiltrate the school himself, as no other Titan was capable of blending in unnoticed.

Going back to school was not something he looked forward to.

You can imagine Robin's relief, of course, when Tilton simply said: "Meet William Thead. He's the main cause of the shooting. He's also the reason it took a week to clean up the pile of thrashed androids at 58th Street." With this, he sent them a photo of the person in question. He looked quite normal.

If the articles had caused some confusion among the Titans, this completely befuddled them.

"He has certain powers," Tilton explained, "Powers that make him stand out. Powers that hinder him in his schoolwork. Powers that allowed him to annihilate approximately one hundred androids sent by Slade while you were out of commission. These powers also gave him a sort of lucky streak in trading card games, which naturally made a lot of people jealous. And now his powers have brought guns into a very respectable school." Tilton regarded the Titans present very carefully. Right at that moment Raven walked in, kind of spoiling the moment.

"You know what I'm going to ask, don't you?" the mayor stated rather than asked.

"What's happening?" Raven asked.

"Our friend mayor Tilton is asking us to take in a new member. In exchange he won't send a bunch of lab men after Silky to dissect him. Is that about right, mayor?"

"You can tell your mentor was a detective, Robin, you hit it right on the mark. I'll send you the specifics about what we know of his powers so far. I'll also have to ask you to come see me next week. There'll be a trial regarding the shooting, but you don't have to be present then, just after the official business, for some paperwork. Once all that's done, we should be able to set a date for when you can pick him up and make him an official member. Any questions?"

"A few. Is it even legal what you're doing now? Does this kid fall under the same regulations as us? Regarding his education, I mean, is he smart enough to drop out of school? And what do his parents think of this?" Robin knew when he was on to something, like any detective. He wasn't about to get stuck with some spoilt superbrat who couldn't tell a TV remote from a nuclear detonator.

"Glad you asked, Robin, take a look at these. They're a few examples of his schoolwork and some of the things he does in his spare time. I think these will answer most of your questions. And as for his parents, they didn't even know he had any kind of powers. Now they'd rather see him out of the house. I think that should about cover it. Tilton out." And with that, he hung up.

A few seconds later, the Titans' fax machine started coughing up documents regarding Will's powers, schoolwork and hobbies.

The Titans, it has to be said, were impressed. Some of the things that got sent through had titles such as 'Shortcuts to Genius', 'Theories on Power', 'The Mechanics behind Thought Processes' and indeed 'One Hundred Reasons why I could be a Teen Titan', the latter probably being recommended by the mayor. So the Titans had some reading material to keep them busy. The opinions surrounding their future new member were somewhat divided.

"This guy's nuts" was Cyborg's general opinion, after reading a few of the Shortcuts. "Brilliant, I'm sure, but nuts."

Beast Boy, on the other hand, was reading the 100 Reasons and he had cause to be overjoyed when he read number 22:

'I am an experienced gamer and thus quite capable of drubbing Cyborg at any Gamestation activity.'

"He must have seen your interview with Gone Gamin' on TV, Cy," he said with glee.

"We'll just see about that," was all Cyborg had to say, though he did like the prospect of facing a different game freak on the big screen.

Robin and Raven, on the other hand, were more concerned with what this new kid would be capable of.

"The ability to alter chance events by ritualistic means. Knows how to contact the spirit world and how to defeat immaterial spirits." Raven read aloud.

"What's that mean, Rae?" The green shapeshifter asked.

"It means he can summon spirits and get rid of poltergeists," came the reply.

"Doesn't sound like he'll be doing a lot of fighting, then, " the mostly metal young man supposed. "What are we going to do with someone who doesn't have any combat abilities?"

"Actually, I've got those right here," Robin answered," listen to this: a highly developed body and life energy allow him to raise the pressure tolerance of his body, lower his weight and increase his strength, giving the impression of superspeed, superstrength and near flight. He is also capable of manipulating this energy field to increase his perceptions, effectively giving him full knowledge of all his surroundings. When manipulated further, this field gives him the gifts of telekinesis and mind manipulation. He can also absorb heat energy." Even as he said it, he knew exactly what remark was going to come now, word for word.

"Cool," Beast Boy said," so it'll kinda be like having a twelfth-level space samurai on our side. I like this guy already."

He started to like him even more when Starfire went over what she was reading, in her usual social disposition: his interests and hobbies.

"Science fiction, he's memorised all the episodes of Clash of the Planets," at which point she saw a certain green face turn tickled pink, not a pretty sight," a rather fanatic card gamer…Robin, what's magic?" the green-eyed alien wondered

"You know what magic is, Star, it's doing things normal people can't explain, like using spells and stuff like that," the Boy Wonder replied.

"But how then, is it a gathering?"

"What do you mean?"

"It says so, right here. See for yourself."

Robin read it. He read it again, to make sure he had read it right. And again. After that his mind just started filling up with fond memories. The others could see it in his face.

"What is it? Are you ill, Robin?"

"No, Star, it's just that… It's this game I used to play. It's called Magic: the Gathering. It doesn't really have anything to do with real magic, but I guess he must have used it to practise chance altering or somethin'." Robin's face was showing a weird smile again."

"You used to play Magic? That thing they're always going on about in Gone Gamin'?" Beast Boy couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yeah, it's a funny story really. You see, the guy who wore the Robin costume before me, the guy who's now known as Nightwing, used to play chess with his mentor. I had the same mentor, but I couldn't play chess if my life depended on it. Now my mentor insisted I learn how to play, but it just didn't seem like fun at the time, or fair, for that matter. So we came to a compromise: I'd learn how to play chess and I'd get to pick a single game for myself that I knew I could play right away and he'd learn it as well. Duel Monsters hadn't come out at the time, so I chose Magic. It was really funny to see him going to the store to get some preconstructed packs and a few boosters, you had to have been there. In any event, I learned how to play chess, got pretty good at it, but more importantly, my mentor learned how to play Magic so there was at least one game where we were both on more or less equal footing. You can catch up on card games, but chess requires sheer experience, so the card game was a relief. Man, the memories of those games…we even did a few multiplayer free-for-alls with some friends."

"And now we're going to have another player in the tower." Raven concluded.

"And judging from what it says here, he's got quite a collection, too," said Cyborg after glancing at the paper himself.

"Yeah, well, we've still got a week or so. I could teach you guys how to play if you want. I've still got a few of my old decks in my room."

They all agreed, even Raven, though only after Robin revealed the presence of black magic in the game.

"Well, we're sure to make him feel welcome. It just wouldn't do to make people think we're elitists." Robin said. Then, for reasons beyond all comprehension, Beast Boy belched.

"Nope. Wouldn't do at all."

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Well, What do you think? Good? Bad? Can't tell yet? Please review. 


	2. First Impressions

Disclaimer: Again, I do not own Magic: the Gathering, Teen Titans, mayor Tilton and before I forget I don't own 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. (Otherwise I'd have grabbed my towel and left long ago, lol). I also don't own any of the decks played by the Titans. Most of these I got off the Internet.

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**First impressions**

It should be said that while Robin did try to teach the basic rules to his friends, it had been about two years since his last game. The most recent deck he had was from a set called Scourge, so he was behind on the strategic department. Of course, a bit of quick research solved that problem easily. Apparently, since his last game, there had been an era where artifact cards reigned supreme and now there was an emphasis on Legendary creatures. The Legend rule was also the only thing that had been changed in the rules, another great relief. So the Titans learned how to play Magic in a week.

_Fact of Improbability: the closer a planet is to a Terror Line or its centre, the more trading card games you will find on that planet. Similarly, you will always find a game with the word 'magic' in its title when the planet has a certain proximity to the centre. It should also be noted that some of the most powerful weapons known to all of existence actually run on trading card game phenomena, the most powerful ones of these being driven by something called 'The Mana Screw'. Many mages have actually tried using real magic to summon the Mana Screw, but they all died horrible deaths._

Raven (naturally) took a liking to a black and blue wizards deck, Cyborg, strangely enough, got the hang of a White Weenie soldier deck while Starfire and Beast Boy argued about who'd get to play the Elf deck. Robin, meanwhile, was content with his pet Bird deck. He was just glad he'd found his decks. They brought back so many memories…Shame he only had four, though. Maybe the Dark Knight would consider lending him a fifth one.

In any event, Robin was present after the trial, but it should be noted he hadn't followed any of it. If anyone were to ask him exactly what the trial was about, he would have no answer. Fact was, none of it mattered that much. The paperwork was in order and two days later the Titans had a new addition to their ranks.

While Beast Boy, Raven and Starfire waited for Cyborg and Robin to bring their new member in, Robin was giving Will a few helpful tips.

"Take a deep breath when you enter the main room for the first time. Starfire can get very excited and she will press all the air out of your lungs when she first meets you. She doesn't look strong, but she is, so be careful. And try not to mention your predecessor. Beast Boy is still in pieces about the whole thing and the rest of us just try not to think of it too much."

"Well, if you don't mind my asking, exactly what happened to her? Nobody besides you seem to know, and I'm just wondering, is she dead, incapacitated or did she run away again?"

It was silent in the T-car for a while.

"I'm sorry, I hope I didn't…"

"It's not your fault, you couldn't know. She was lured over by Slade. He implanted some kind of device that allowed her to control her powers, but it also allowed him to control her. It was about to reach her spine when she broke free. She fought Slade, in more ways than one, and sacrificed herself to save the city from a volcanic eruption. Slade died and Terra was turned to stone. We've tried to revive her, but we ran out of options after about two weeks. Nothing worked. The saddest part of all is, Beast Boy was right there when it happened. You can see the pain his eyes sometimes. Oh yeah, when you go rent movies, try to avoid overly romantic ones."

Will was about to ask another question, but he decided not to press the issue.

_Fact of Improbability: There are always greater consequences connected to silence than to saying what is on ones mind. Great political schemes and wars have been caused, aided or even avoided not because someone knew just what to say, but simply because important people knew when to shut up. For some reason, these chance mages do not have this talent._

Of course, Robin had been right to warn Will about Starfire's unmatched enthusiasm. And yes, she did press most of the air out his lungs after meeting him, which Will assumed was a Tamaranean custom. He immediately assumed Tamaraneans did not have very long life expectancies. This assumption was further fortified when Starfire asked if he wanted to taste a Tamaranean meal, which was the very first thing Robin had warned him about. Needless to say, he politely declined. After proper introductions to the rest of the crew, including Silky, he was shown to his room. He had decided to take a room in one of the lower levels, quite large, roomy, andwith big windows that could be closed with the push of a button.

"Should be great for when I'm contacting spirits," he had said. Raven, who was the only one to have any experience in the matter, was inclined to agree, though she would have gone for a room closer to the showers, also important when contacting spirits, but for less obvious reasons.

Once he had deposited his bags and changed into what would be his superhero outfit, he was off to the training grounds.

"Anything particular I should know about?" he asked.

"Not really", Cyborg replied, "this is just your basic training stuff: lasers, sonic cannons, metal fists…all hidden underground and ready to pop up when you least expect it."

"Pretty basic, then. Do I have to destroy any targets or avoid them or…"

"Just go as fast as you can from the starting point to the finish. If you feel like thrashing any equipment, be my guest. That's what the Fixit-droids are for anyway."

And with that final remark in mind, Will stepped out through the lower gate and onto the training field. His costume was grey and blue, of about the same model as Robin's, only without the cape. In fact, he wore a mask quite like Robin's and what looked like a utility belt. But the similarities ended right there. He was a few inches taller than Robin and slightly more muscular. All in all, it was a pretty good disguise. The only thing people might recognise him by was his hair, short, black and all over the place. He looked like someone who didn't know when to use a comb, or even how to use one, for that matter.

"Okay, go."

And he was off. The documents the Titans had received were quite right about their newest member's speed and foresight. The metal fists proved too slow, the sonic cannons could barely get a lock on him while he was darting around and the lasers might as well have been replaced by piles of junk.

Of course, after the new Titan passed them, they were replaced by piles of junk. He only needed to stop for a few seconds while he extended his hand, reached out with his power and simply crushed whatever needed crushing. After that, he was off again, darting from here to there, almost bouncing off the ground, sometimes pounding steel with bare fists (actually he covered them in a force field, but it still looked quite impressive), sometimes moving so fast the guns started to shoot each other (a classic trick, but still effective) and at one point he just raised a force field and let one of the sonic cannons hit him. It had about the same effect as a garden hose on a window. He was about to destroy the last two laser cannons, after demonstrating his heat absorption technique, when the ground opened again to reveal yet another pair of metal fists.

"Time for a little surprise", he thought.

He wrecked the cannons with his TK, boosted by the absorbed energy of the blasts. Then he revealed his secret weapon. What he did was this: he summoned his personal energy, from a reserve meant specifically to fuel this weapon. Then he channelled the appropriate amount of energy in the form of a weapon he was familiar with. Mind you, not just any weapon would do. This technique required having trained with the real thing, not an easy thing to do if the weapon in question does not exist on your world. Of course, you could just take a toy version of it and pretend it's the real thing; the result is more or less the same if you attach weights to the toy.

_Fact of Improbability: Toys are always dangerous in some way or another._

In any event, after disposing of the lasers he charged the last pair of fists with what appeared to be a double-bladed lightsaber, as seen on Clash of the Planets season 0, starring Darth Slash, the wielder of aforementioned lightsaber.

Needless to say, the Titans were very surprised to know that their latest addition had the ability to summon a weapon from a TV show.

They were even more surprised when Silky came running and screaming out ofthe tower, cowering behind Starfire as if a demon was after him.

Truth be told, he was almost right on that one.

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Author's notes: Okay, first off, I'd like to make it very clear that any resemblance between my invented characters and actually ezisting persons (ie ME) are completely coincidential and entirely unintended. I also have every intention of following the episode structure of the series, with only a few deviations (it's hard to write your version of an episode you've never seen)  
Also, there will be some RobStar action in later chapters. (And by that I mean relationship problems, NO LEMON). As for the rest, you'll have to wait and see. If you can't understand any of the remarks or you're wondering where Will came from, that's a Tale of Chaos in the Magic: the Gathering section. I'd also like to point out that when the 'walker gets replaced by 'The Ultimate Tome of Knowledge' the story will spread to at least two other series and they will overlap atsome points. 

Whew, that was a longer bit of notes than I thought. Hope you enjoy the Tales of Chaos. And if I make some dumb mistakes, feel free to point them out.


	3. What's in a name, anyway?

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I am One with Nothing, but I don't own One with Nothing. (Don't worry if you don't get _that_ joke). Anyway, I don't own Teen Titans, I don't own Magic: the Gathering, nor do I own 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. I also think it's pretty obvious I got one of the gags from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe (I may have spelled that wrong) See if you can find it!

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Chapter 3: What's in a name, anyway?

Naturally, Will had a hunch at what had scared Silky half to death. It was his servitor, a thoughtform meant to aid him in his work. He had managed to keep the little beggar hidden for a ridiculously long time, especially considering its weight and size. Of course, there had been no inquisitive worms at his house. None he knew of, anyway.

_Fact of Improbability: Curiosity is always underestimated._

He had managed to ward it against prying eyes, even immortal ones, but now he thought he might as well introduce it to the rest of the gang.

"Kai! Could you get your carapace out here please?" Will asked standing in front of his room.

"Is that worm thing with you?" came the reply. That worm thing, as he was referred to, was still cowering behind Starfire. The Titans were, yet again, puzzled.

"Don't tell me you brought a pet as well." Robin nearly pleaded. Tilton was not going to like this.

The door opened. Before the Titans stood a creature none of them had ever seen. Except for Beast Boy, who used to be a great fan of Pocket Monsters.

"Cool, it's a mini-Blastoise." Indeed, the creature did look a lot like something from a Japanese TV-show. It was a bipedal turtle that lurched forward as if its shell was growing crooked. It was about waist-high, had very short hind legs and its arms ended in three-pronged claws. Its beak looked like that of a snapping turtle.

"I am not a pet and I am certainly not a Pocket Monster," the creature protested.

"My name is Kai the Kappa, though some would call me Kaijin. I am master Will's servitor, his familiar if you will. He created me based on illustrations from Japanese faerie tales. I help him contact the spirit world while he is otherwise occupied. I also guard his property from unwanted guests."

Before he could say anything more, he was dangling in the air. Starfire had finally realised this was also a new friend and was giving Kai the usual bone-crunching welcome.

"So that thing's like your spiritual secretary, huh?" Beast Boy asked.

"Something…like…that…yes," Kai tried to say, gasping for air.

"You certainly are full of surprises, Will," Robin said, "anything else we should know about?" 'Like a strange reaction to the full moon?' he secretly thought.

"Yeah, I'm a very skilled telepath, I thought you knew that. And no, I don't react to the full moon. I am more than capable of picking up other people's thoughts, though. Sometimes it's as if they're trying to broadcast their secrets."

This sent a little chill down Robin's spine.

"I hope you don't try to find out all our secrets."

"Don't worry, I can switch off my receiver," Will replied, "if I want to, that is."

"So, guys, what's next on today's list, huh?" Cyborg interrupted.

"Well, we still have to give Will a hero's name, we can't just yell out his name where villains can hear it," Starfire said, finally leaving poor Kai some air. Silky suddenly got over his fear of turtles and got sympathetic with the big reptile.

"Oh, man, I hadn't thought of that yet," Will said, "what am I going to call myself? There must be hundreds of possibilities."

"I wouldn't count on that, the Justice League has pretty big army of heroes and they've all got good names, so…" Cy let that last thought trail away.

"Listen, this is probably going to take a while, so why don't we brainstorm over a game of Magic?" Robin suggested.

"You guys know how to play?"

"Oh yes, dear Robin has been teaching us this game of Gathering for a week," came the alien reply.

"Only he doesn't seem to have enough cards to go around," quoth the Raven, who had been quiet through the whole thing.

"No prob, I've got more than enough decks for a multiplayer."

That's all they needed to hear. It didn't take long for everyone to take their pick out of an impressive collection of decks. Raven decided on a rather devilish Cleric deck, Beast Boy snatched up a Beast deck with an unprecedented burst of speed, Cyborg was thrilled to take up a cog deck, Starfire went for a Snakes/Beacon Blaster mono-green hybrid deck and Robin decided to give Ninja's a go. Will went with an artifact deck he claimed to have modified from an Internet deck.

"It's pretty far from the original, but it's a lot more fun, I think."

And so it was that the Titans sat down for a good old-fashioned free-for-all, everyone having a deck they liked (and modified, seeing as the creator had such a good memory), while trying to come up with a good name for their new member.

"Dark Knight?" Starfire suggested, playing a Forest.

"Taken," Raven answered, playing a swamp and Dark Supplicant.

"Speedy? You're fast enough," spoke the green shapeshifter, laying down a mountain.

"Come on, you know that's taken," answered Robin. The latter then played a swamp, an Ornithopter and a Shuriken.

"Well, what about Deckmaster?" Cyborg suggested, playing an Island and Wayfarer's Bauble

"No, I don't think people will see a card gamer as a superhero. Besides, it's taken," said the yet nameless Titan.

At the risk of offending any players who may read this, I shall not list the whole of the moves made by the Teen Titans. It should only be known that the game kept swinging. Raven would get out a huge Scion of Darkness, stomp Beast Boy for no apparent reason, then be stopped by one of Robin's bouncy Ninja's. This Ninja would then retreat or die as Cyborg managed to combine Auriok Salvagers and Engineered Explosives with a fistful of mana. Starfire would then, occasionally, get out a Blasting Station combined with Sosuke's Summons and an even bigger fistful of mana thanks to one Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro and Eternal Witness. This would put Cyborg and the rest on the defensive again. Meanwhile, Will's strategy became readily apparent as he sifted through all of his cogs thanks to Artificer's Intuition, which was blown up a turn too late. This meant that his Salvaging Station was soon accompanied by four Myr Servitors and a lot of Baubles and Spellbombs. This wouldn't have been too much of a problem if it hadn't been for his Grinding Station, his own Blasting Station and some very large Arcbound Crushers and Reclaimers.

In any event, the game was looking grim. One of the Titans had to go at some point and that point was now. Cyborg had just emptied his hand of recovered cogs (again), Robin had managed to stop one of them with a Condescend, Cyborg retaliated by attacking with a Patron of the Kitsune, who was instantly stopped by Raven's Awe Strike, only to have that meet another Condescend from Will's end of the table (just to stop her lifegain once).

When the dust had settled, at the end of that incredible turn, Beast Boy thought it was time to cast Hunting Pack, which gave him a Beast token for every spell played that turn. At that point, Will thought it was a good idea to bounce his foe's Aether Charge, which would otherwise have wiped everyone out. As it was, old BB was sitting on a very comfortable life total thanks to a largely ignored Totem Speaker.

Everyone seemed to have run out of Echoing Truths, Beast Boy was well on his way to victory and he was sure to point out the irony to the metal man, whose Engineered Explosives had met with Starfire's rather unexpected Nezumi Graverobber.

The turn passed to Will, who was still without a good alias.

"What about Juro?" he suggested.

"What's that?" the victorious green kid asked.

"It's short for Jurojin, a Japanese god of luck of Chinese origin. He's the God of Longevity. It would point out the fact I'm hard to kill. You saw what happened on the training grounds."

Nobody could argue with that, except for Beast Boy.

"Yeah, but I still beat you at this," he argued.

"Actually, you haven't beaten me yet. I play Summoning Station. I win."

After carefully explaining the fact that his four Stations and a Bauble formed an infinite loop, the game was officially seen as over. And he finally had a name, albeit an odd one. There was adiscussion about naming oneself after a god when being in a team called Teen Titans, but then one could've also argued that the two members who had named themselves after birds could, by the same logic, be seen as brother and sister. That was the end of that discussion.

Two things do need to be brought up at this point, though. The first was that Will or Juro had held that particular Station for a long time and this had not escaped Robin's attention. The second was that, for the moment, nobody had any clue what Kai had been up to or what Juro's utility belt was for.

But nobody would ask, because right then the alarms sounded. Mumbo Jumbo was in town again, robbing a jewellery store. He would be the first villain to meet with a God of Luck. He would also be first to see what this new kid had on his belt.

He certainly wouldn't be the last.

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Well, just one more chapter of immortal chatter and then the fun will really begin. Also, I seem to be having trouble double-spacing after sentences. I do it in the original documents, but doesn't seem to work. 


	4. Magic does not a mighty man make

The romance, the problems, the intrige, it starts now. Disclaimer: I don't own Magic: the Gathering, I don't own Teen Titans and I don't own The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Those extra seams on my towel are not reinforcements, I just have a very frisky Guinea pig. Also, the message to other immortals may be misinterpreted as me trying to tell other people how to write their fanfics. It's not. I barely know what I'm doing writing this stuff. Please review!

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Chapter 4: Magic does not a mighty man make

They had told him to lay low. So he did. They had explained why. He understood. They had made it very clear he shouldn't try to do anything unless there was an emergency. So he waited for the emergency to show up.

While Juro is waiting for Mumbo to pull something dangerous out of his hat, I'd like to send a little message to other immortals who also seek to learn more about the world. Through research, I mean.

One of the most important things is camouflage, as most civilisations think of planeswalkers and immortals in general as beings of fiction, which naturally means everybody's going to chase you if you're discovered. Of course, the natives could see you as a god and begin worshipping you, but that tends to corrupt one's findings. So one should assume a normal guise fitting the world one is on. For instance, it is a bad idea to assume the guise of a silver golem (that means you Karn!) while visiting a desert world, as this will blind and possibly scorch any of the subjects you're trying to study (believe me, I've seen someone do it). Actually, the best thing to do is just to become one with the environment, as this makes you quite invisible while still allowing you to read other people's minds.

Naturally, research on the spot is not the only way to acquire knowledge. There are many great tomes of knowledge, the most famous one being 'The Ultimate Tome of Knowledge'. One should be cautious, though, when consulting this. It contains many omissions and is frequently inaccurate. It is also recommended not to try and study any owners of this Tome, as it contains (among many other things) ways to detect a planeswalker's presence and ways to kill one.

The only way to study people with this Tome is to visit Frogstar World B or Tamaran and hook up to the Ultimate Perspective Vortex. One of the benefits of this method (besides being undetectable) is that it actually allows an immortal to study all of existence at the same time without splitting into multiple forms. The reason for this is that the Vortex creates an image of all of existence based on the principle of extrapolated matter. Basically, all of creation can be seen and calculated by using a faerie cake as a model. The only downside is: all the noise prevents all thought. Then again, it's enough to kill a mortal.

In any event, now came Mumbo's big trick. After a few tasteless remarks in Raven's direction about stealing the show he tried to suck all of the Titans into his hat.

That is to say, he thought he was sucking all the Titans into his hat.

While the original five were forming an Indian line (that's elephant style, if you're wondering), the one who was still standing outside shot into action.

In a fraction of a second, Mumbo's hat was torn to tatters. He didn't even see it happen, he only saw some throwing knives floating back to their owner.

"The name's Juro. The hat's useless now. Care to see if you can draw your wand fast enough to beat me?"

Now the magician was at a dilemma. He had put his wand back on his belt to pour more power into his suction spell, but he didn't know this kid. There was no telling how fast he was.

While he was considering all of hisoptions, Raven, who had landed right in front of the villain, used her shadowy telekinesis to yank the wand out of his reach and promptly broke it. Now Mumbo Jumbo was just a normal guy, well, not really normal…You get the idea.

"Now Mumbo, you've got two options," said the teen in blue and grey," you could surrender to us and to the police and be in prison just in time for the late night news.

Or you could try to use that magic faerie dust you have in your pocket."

"What?" Mumbo was shocked. Nobody knew about that dust. It was the first time he had brought it.

"Oh, yes, I know about it. You have a small bag in your left breast pocket," Juro continued, tapping his own chest where Mumbo had the powder," as a Plan B. So you just have to wonder if you are quick and smart enough to outwit someone who already knows your secret weapon. Now tell me, do you feel lucky?"

For a time, it was silent. Mumbo kept shifting his gaze from this new enemy to all of his regular young enemies to his fallen loot and did not like what he saw. He decided to risk it. He grabbed the bag, saw it flying away as it was hit with another dart-like projectile, but he knew he could escape.

He had grabbed just enough dust to teleport out of there. He threw it to the ground, in his usual showman attitude, laughing all the way.

He was still standing. He quickly glanced from left to right, not daring to move.

"Are you going to surrender now or what?" the young lad repeated.

"I…I surrender."

Later, back at the T-Tower…

"How did you know his dust wasn't going to work?" Raven asked, curious at just how skilled the new guy was at real magic. Juro got out one of his darts.

"This thing is covered in disruptive sigils. It has iron in its core and salt crystals in its internal structure. It's a perfect energy disruptor when thrown, but otherwise quite harmless."

The blue-robed sorceress was honestly impressed, but she didn't show it, of course.

"So these things can make any magical artefact useless and banish ghosts, right?"

"Yep, but of course you can't kill anything with it. Even ghosts will just dissipate and leave a lot of ectoplasm."

"Of course."

At that moment Kai walked in, along with the rest of the gang.

"Everything is in order, master," spoke the turtle.

"Good. Anything specific I should know?"

"Well, the supplier asked for a small favour. He gave some coordinates, a time and simply said something about killing a bird."

"That's it?"

"Yes."

"What are you talking about?" Cyborg asked.

"Oh, it's just one of my projects, it's what I do in my spare time. I contact spirits, ask them for help on certain things… Now I'm trying to get a hold of the Ultimate Tome of Knowledge. But apparently the ghost who has this thing wants me to kill a certain bird. Did he say why?"

"He claimed it would save your world from a danger you can't see yet," replied the reptile.

I did not worry at that point. There were and still are many books that claim to be the Ultimate Tome of Knowledge, but in immortal circles, there is only one and it was just impossible for a copy to reach this backwater world. No sensible invader ever brought it along and nobody who owned it was dumb enough to lose it here.

Anyways, the Titans talked for a bit, then Juro decided to go to sleep. Something about better contact during dreams.

"What do you think of the new guy?" Robin asked.

"He's cute," Starfire answered, but then she had said the same about a worm.

"He's powerful," Cyborg stated.

"No arguments there," spoke the green one.

"He knows his magic," said Raven, "he might even know some things I don't."

"You're kidding," everyone else said simultaneously.

"We may need to keep an eye on him," Robin said, "we haven't seen the limits of his powers, we can't even be sure we've seen all of his powers. Who knows what spirits he's bringing in here right now?"

"Robin, chill, man, breathe" the metal Titan suggested.

"What's wrong with you?" the shapeshifter asked.

"I don't know, it's just a lot of small things that are bugging me. Why did he need a gun at his school if he was so powerful? Why did he hold on to that winning card for so long when we played? Why is he going after this Tome? And what about that remark about reading our minds when he wants to?"

"I think I can answer that," said someone behind them. It was Kai. He had re-entered the room, apparently just to join the conversation.

"In reverse order: he was pointing out the usefulness of his telepathy in combat situations, as he demonstrated even tonight, he wishes to know if any immortal presence is nearby, plus he's a very curious lad."

At that point Kai grabbed a breather and a chair.

"Uh, where was I? Oh yes, he held on to it for so long because it would have been rude to end the game without everyone having had a good and proper crack at everyone else. In short, he was just trying to be nice to Beast Boy here."

The latter's face turned tickled pink again, obviously thinking of his near victory.

"And as for the gun, he didn't use it."

"I beg your pardon?" Star asked

"Oh, didn't you know? He wasn't the shooter, was the one getting shot. Of course, his power allowed him to survive and retaliate, but that just caused the rest of the school to become terrified of him. Did you know he's officially in a coma now?"

"Huh?" came the reply from nowhere in particular.

"Oh, yes, the shooter was condemned, the pupils who saw it were not only traumatised but also under the influence of contaminated water and poor old Will is now lying in a hospital, in a coma. He is also not to receive any visitors," he said this with enough glee to make everyone understand just what he meant.

"I'm sorry," the Boy Wonder said.

"Don't be, everyone's scared of him. Except me, of course, and that's only because his mind created me. There's still a link between us, mind you, but I have an entirely separate intelligence. So everything that is said here stays between us."

"Wait a minute, did you just say the government is covering up for Juro?" Raven asked

"No, I'm saying the city already has him covered. Just like you, I presume."

Again, no arguments came. Cyborg was officially dead, Robin was officially nobody without his mask and the other three had had a hard enough time proving they officially existed without being chased by lab men and angry townsfolk. Raven in particular had seen quite a few pitchforks in her time on Earth.

"This city has a specific regulation regarding your kind of people. The only difference between your cases and Juro's is the fact that he came from the normal part of society. His powers didn't come to him, he claimed them as his own."

"What do you mean?" Raven asked.

"Imagine this: a man walks into a shop and tells the owner to give him all his money or he will use the incredible power of his mind to thrash the place. Naturally the owner does not believe this and refuses. The man walks out and mere seconds later things start to float around at their own accord, only to hurl themselves against the walls. When the owner tries to tell the police, nobody believes him. The courts have never acknowledged the existence of magic, telekinesis or anything of the sort. So what happens? Nothing. The problem is ignored. Only this kind of robbery or extortion starts to become more frequent, yet the general public still refuses to admit that magic exists. What happens then?"

"We intervene," quoth the Raven.

"Indeed. Suddenly other obvious fakes who are actually decent folk," he said the 'fakes' bit with some sarcasm," are asked if they won't stop those bad fakes, but nobody wants to know how they do it. Both parties are still considered fakes, but one of them is given permission to fight whoever it is that's going out of reality's borders."

"That pretty much sums up how we as Titans were formed, but you still haven't answered my question. What do you mean, he 'claimed' his powers?"

"They were part of his second project. He had already read about how to increase one's luck by drawing and charging sigils, he already had a book about contacting spirits and ways to defend against them. His other powers were just the next step. He asked around, politely, and the spirits showed him how to train. "

Raven still wasn't satisfied  
"But why? What was it that caused him to do it? Something must have driven him to it, or at least encouraged it?"

"No one really knows, not I, perhaps not even he. Fact is, no one even knows how his first power works. No one knows just what happens when he decides to alter his luck. And none know where his limits are."

At this point, I detected a presence in Juro's chamber. I assumed it was his supplier. I decided to have a look at the book he'd ordered astrally. Perhaps it was one I knew. It couldn't be the genuine article, though; that was impossible.

But when I saw the ghost of Arthur Dent (one of only a few celebrity ghosts) materialise a book on Juro's bed with the words 'Don't Panic' on them in nice, friendly letters, I decided to vacate the premises.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to see a man about a faerie cake.

Most of the Titans had already gone to sleep. Robin hadn't, though; he still had the feeling there was something he didn't know. If only he could figure out what that was…

"Hey, there, hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Juro said.

"I thought you were asleep already."

"I was, but I decided to try out this new toy right away. It even has instructions on how to make a detector for immortals."

"And?"

"Apparently, there was one here, but he left."

"So what are you still doing up?"

"I thought you'd be interested to hear this," and with that, he opened his very own copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and typed in 'Tamaran'. The information began to show on a screen and a voice began to speak.

"Tamaran: Planet of Top Tens" it then displayed a measure of information neither of them was familiar with, accompanied by a very large number.

"Better just get the summary," Juro suggested.

The Guide showed and spoke:

"Tamaran:

Area: very pretty, quite large.

Imports: best left unmentioned.

Exports: mostly people, as these are capable of travelling through space without starships.

Population: ridiculously strong, not the kind of folk you want to mess with.

Monetary units: any Galactic currency will do.

Art: see Area

Sex: not recommended unless you have a very strong bone structure or a very high pain threshold. "

"So, does this thing have any more information on Tamaran?" Robin had ignored the last thing the Guide had said. His curiosity, among other things, was slightly aroused.

"Yeah, but it looks like it's a ton."

"We'll save it for another night, then, it's getting late. I'm going to bed."

"Yeah, I guess I've done enough freaky stuff for one night. Good night."

* * *

Well, I suppose I should mention the fact that the full entry in the Guide for Tamaran is posted as a different story. It just seemed too funny to be a mere chapter at the time. And too long. Definitely too long. 


	5. Ponderings at night

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  
Must...have reviews...ability to write...failing...Seriously, please review.

* * *

Chapter 5: Ponderings at night. 

Raven was sound asleep. She'd heard Juro leave his room to show his supposed Ultimate Tome of Knowledge to Robin. She didn't care. If it was important, it would wait until morning.  
Strange one, though, that Juro. She realised she had lost her cool a few times when he was mentioned. How did that happen? Why did she press the subject when they were talking about his powers' origins? It didn't make any sense. The fact that he had coincidentally chosen a room directly below hers was also something she felt suspicious about. She couldn't figure out why, though.

Starfire had gone to bed the same way she seemed to do just about everything: with a big smile. She was overjoyed to have a new friend, as was usually the case. The fact that it was such a cute new friend only made it easier. She couldn't help but think about that other friend, though, the one she, well, they all, had lost.  
Perhaps it was time to finally lay friend Terra to rest. Zarquon knew, they had tried to revive her. Nothing had really worked, not even Raven's most powerful magic drink-things. Beast Boy had had the hardest time of it; he hadn't even dared to show up the last few times they tried, rather preparing the Tower for her return and then breaking all the decorative ribbons down again. He had been hurt so much.  
And Robin, Robin still felt guilty about the whole thing. If it hadn't been for him bringing Terra's lack of control up, she wouldn't have run away the first time. He had never said it, but it read right off his face, in private moments. Cyborg had kept to his machines, no doubt working on a miracle himself. And friend Raven, she was just herself the whole time. That said enough.

Cyborg lay attached to his recharger port. It gave him time to think about everything. Day one with their new member had been quite a ball. His powers more than qualified him to be on the team, and Cy had seen nothing but perfect control and not even the slightest indication of anything wrong. No tiny little slip-ups, no sad face to get sympathy, he had pretty much accepted the life of a hero. Then again, if that turtle thing was to be believed, he had chosen that life.  
It was nice to have another member in the T-Tower. It really was a pity Terra wasn't around to see it. Ah, Terra. The cool girl with the earthshaking powers. Beast Boy had never gotten over his crush for her. Just one good look, one good laugh and she had snared him good. Then those tragedies and BB's eyes were never quite the same. Not to his friends, anyway. Cyborg had had a go at trying to revive her from the stone, but it couldn't be done, not by him. A thing like that would require alchemy or something and alchemy was just not up his alley. It wasn't even up Raven's. Maybe if this new kid's Tome of Knowledge proved ligit, maybe that would hold the answer. In any event, he'd find out tomorrow.

Robin had gone to bed a bit later. Funny thing, that Tome of Juro's. Would the information in it be real? It would be nice to learn something about Star's planet. She tended to have a very short attention span on that subject, one moment talking about the delicious Gorka Berries and the recipes one could make with them, the next going on and on about a species Robin's tongue refused to pronounce correctly. It was anatomical, he assumed.  
Yes, funny thing, that Tome, and a weird guy who owned it. Powerful, beyond a doubt, but weird nonetheless. Robin's detective mind started to act up again. That wasn't anatomical, he knew, that was Pavlov's Law coming back to haunt him once again.  
What did he know about this new member? He had the same powers as a level-twelve space samurai from Clash of the Planets and judging from what Kai had said, he'd probably used that show as a training goal. So he liked sci-fi. No surprise there; that was in the documents the mayor had sent them. He also knew this guy liked to let people think they could beat him, when they really never stood a chance. He had done it at the Magic table, he had done it with Mumbo. Wasn't there something about him being able to expand his intellect as well? He tried to recall it. There it was; one of the papers Juro had written was entitled 'Shortcuts to Genius'. Strange title, but it got the message across. So he could conclude that Juro was bent on improving himself.  
Why, was what bugged him and obviously it had bugged Raven, too. It didn't happen often that Raven got so emotional so easily. Usually there were barriers that needed to be broken and you could tell with no effort just how far she was from exploding. Tonight, however, she had sounded…caring, almost. Like she felt for this guy she had only known for less than a day. The last time she'd spoken with that tone was when Beast Boy had cut his finger on the edges of one of Raven's magic books.  
He didn't have time to reflect on this, however. His mind told him there were still some things he needed to think of, some pieces of a puzzle that needed to fit. He wisely decided not to fight that impulse; that way led only to insomnia.  
So what else did he know? There was the matter of his familiar, Kai, another strange tidbit of information. He mainly needed this creature to contact the spirit world while his master was otherwise occupied. But what did he do exactly? Robin didn't know. Obviously, it had something to do with his master's projects. Robin realised right then and there he'd have to tolerate a lot of projects while Juro was in the Tower. What else? What could he deduce? Anything to just set his mind at ease. Anything obvious would do. Then it hit him: the newest Teen Titan had an affinity for Japanese mythology. Now there was something he hadn't thought of. With that thought he could go to sleep.  
Unfortunately an active mind, especially that of someone who deals with cause and effect like a detective, can be very cruel indeed.  
He'd deduced the fact that his latest team member liked the Japanese culture. He'd figured that much out from the fact that he had a Japanese kappa as a familiar and chose to wear the name of a Japanese god. "Big deal," a voice in his head said. He knew what was coming now. He'd never found a way to stop it. His mind would just go over everything he had ever done, pointing out what he did wrong and what it had lead to.  
It started nice and easy, this time, with him fighting Mumbo. Just a few kicks, maybe some Birdarangs that didn't miss and the fight would've been over a lot sooner. Then a bit forward, to the little meeting they had had while Juro was asleep.  
"You just had to freak out at the first possible chance, didn't you?"  
It didn't stop there, though; it went all the way back to him trying feebly to intimidate the mayor while he had been in control the second the phone had rung. The worst part, though, was when it got to Terra. The fact that he had really believed she'd come out of Slade's apprenticeship after a pathetic little mid-fight speech still gnawed at him. The fact that she wouldn't have even gone into his apprenticeship if hadn't been for him had been eating at him for an even longer time.  
He just dozed off, eventually.

Beast Boy had rarely had trouble sleeping. He would always dream of luscious jungles waiting for him to be explored, animals that would revere him as a hero, a king, even, and of one beautiful girl who still held his heart.  
Waking up, however, was a different matter. There is just something about having someone you care for, the warmth when you're near, the laughter you share, your secrets divulged, that gives one a sense of fulfilment, like being enlightened or even slightly drugged. When one is brusquely pulled away from this, and realisation sets in, despair is usually not far behind.  
So Beast Boy deliberately decided to stay up for a while. Raven had once told him that, although everyone dreams every night, you don't always remember what you dream. Staying awake for just a while longer, keeping ones mind occupied a bit, was a sure-fire way to avoid a reality shock when waking up. So he got to thinking about this new kid.  
Definitely powerful. Cool costume, albeit a bit less stylish than most would have preferred. There were more than enough Robin clones running around without some actual space samurai making his own adaptation. Because that's what he was, that Juro guy, a space samurai. Not just any old space samurai, but one with additional weaponry, too. Those darts looked really cool in mid-air and would probably be big help if Mumbo got out again, which he usually did.  
Then there was the prospect of video gaming. Most games on a single screen allowed either two or four players to play at the same time. This had naturally meant that Cy, Robin and himself had to take turns bashing each others head in on the big screen. Raven was a good player when she wanted to be, but that wasn't often. Starfire, on the other hand, wanted to be a good player, but in a free-for-all she always ended up siding with Robin, which kind of ruined the idea of a free-for-all. Then there was Terra. She had been a great player, merciless on screen.  
That sure brought back memories. He'd never felt quite the same since his last fight with her. He still felt the cold metal surrounding her and the warm hug she'd managed to give him in her last moments. The worst part was not knowing whether she could come back or not.

Was Terra really turned to stone, her body reacting to her power or was she dead and had the lava somehow preserved her form? Anyways, he'd stayed up long enough. His alarm clock was set. He went to sleep.

Any expert at Clash of the Planets will tell you that a space samurai's sleep is rarely disturbed by dreams. Juro would probably agree, only he wasn't technically a space samurai. He was just some guy who could do the same things as one, and more. For one thing, real space samurai probably never learned how to project their astral and ethereal energy into a physical weapon, with variable intensity. They probably didn't know the difference between the astral and the ethereal, either. In any event, Juro did dream.  
He'd contemplated the possibilities of the latest addition to his peculiar arsenal of capabilities; access to The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He'd also picked up everyone's thoughts as they drifted to sleep. Not on purpose, mind you, it was a reflex. After all, it was the end of the first day of his life as a Titan. It wouldn't have been normal, even by his standards, if he hadn't been a little anxious. But it was all for nothing; the general opinion, as he had seen it, was that the other Titans were impressed by his power. And judging from that whiff of sympathy he kept feeling, old Kai had told them the full story of the shooting.  
At least, the part about who got shot and who was shooting. The 'why' was still a mystery, luckily. There seemed to be a lot of thoughts about his predecessor, as well. Terra. That was normal. Old member gone, new member to take her place…it must feel like he's to replace her. Still, some of them seemed to think he'd be able to revive that girl.

Poor souls.

Dead is dead and only the darkest kind of magic dealt with that. He never tampered with that kind of thing. It wasn't right, and certainly not without danger. Dealing with dead people's spirits was one thing, but waking the dead was an entirely different story.  
First he'd have to actually find the right person's spirit, which wasn't easy, even for him and Kai. That was just assuming she could survive in the astral realm, or wherever it was spirits like that dwelled. On the astral there were things that could eat you if you didn't have a physical body to snap back into. Powers on the physical level aren't always the same in the astral. She could be gone permanently.  
Then he'd have to prepare the body. Taking it out of the stone without damaging it would be a fool's job, assuming she was encased with stone. If she had been turned to stone, he'd have to find some sort of alchemic spell to undo it. That prospect was also not too enticing, considering all the complications involving different tissues. If he made one mistake, she could end up lacking lungs, muscles, anything.

In short, the whole process of bringing that girl back to life would be impossible, even for him.  
And the Guide, though obviously very handy, was not likely to contain anything helpful.

After all, who'd ever heard of a wizard picking up galactic hitchhikers?

* * *

Getting a bit dramatic here, I know, but not to worry. The Robstar thing will commence shortly, just as soon as I get more reviews. 


	6. The Junior Theory in practice

Chapter 6: The Junior Theory in practice.

The rest of Juro's week passed without any mentionable events. He explained to everyone that if Terra could be revived, from what he had heard, it wasn't going to be by him. They hid their disappointment well, but of course not well enough to escape Juro's abilities.

He accepted Cy's challenge to a Gamestation duel, as well as a following challenge involving three Titans against one.

For the record: he let them win by a narrow margin. Just to show a bit of sportsmanship. They loved close calls that didn't involve risking their lives and he gladly indulged them.

In any event, Raven meditated in the mornings as usual, and was quite surprised to see she had a companion for her rooftop contemplations. "Nothing like meditating on an empty stomach," the self-proclaimed God of Longevity said. His choice of name had finally sunk in with the others, and with all the media surrounding them.

His powers were accurately documented, his latest addition as well, and the whole City of Jump was glad to see a new Titan.

Everyone got along just peachy with the god among Titans, as some referred to him. One magazine would go on about the fact that this kid was a wizard whose rituals could bend the very rules of reality. Another declared that he was a space samurai, from a planet nobody knew of. A third would pick up on this story and speculate whether or not this alien was compatible with that other alien Titan. Needless to say, Robin got a little peeved when he read that. All that attention when he had really only fought one bad guy and for less than two minutes…  
He cheered up the night after he read the full entry of Tamaran in The Ultimate Tome of Knowledge, better known as The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Cy and BB were thrilled to have a new sparring partner on the big screen, Robin was thoroughly excited when he discovered an entry about 'Galactic Martial Arts', Starfire never had a real problem with anybody (criminals and boyfriends excluded), and this cutey was no exception, and Raven liked him for the simple fact that he never bothered her. Even when she was meditating, she barely noticed his presence. He was that quiet, but she wasn't entirely sure whether it was on purpose or just natural. In any event, every time they were alone in the same room, he was as quiet as the very emptiness of space. Mice didn't even come close, particularly a certain green one she could mention.

And Kai? Nobody paid much heed to Kai. He mostly guarded his master's room, contacted harmless spirits and occasionally chatted with the Titans when his master wasn't around. In fact, Robin noticed that Kai and Juro were only rarely in the same room, and when they were it was usually in Juro's room. It was just another little datapoint he decided to remember.

Yes, Juro quickly found his place among the Titans. One moment sparring with Robin, as it turned out he really didn't know any martial arts, contrary to most space samurai, another moment explaining to Raven how exactly he altered chance and reality.

"The trick is fiercely concentrating on something one moment and just forgetting about it the next. That alters chance, which realigns the possible and the probable. So basically, with enough power and concentration, or lack thereof, you can make anything happen."

Standard subconscious magic, she knew. It was far from reliable in combat, but it did make for great party tricks. She'd never bothered; she was never one for parties or tricks of them.

So week one came to a conclusion. The only news that concerned the Titans came one Saturday morning. Apparently the mayor of Steel City, which was a little to the East of Jump City, had come to his senses and decided to make the same arrangements as Tilton had made for a select group of teens. This meant that there would be a new team of Teen Titans. There was only one problem, though: the mayor of Steel City didn't have as much experience with superheroes and villains as Tilton. In other words, he wanted to have an inspection of how the new Titans were doing. They had to build their tower themselves, which was the same procedure as with the other Titan team. Contractors could be infiltrated, so any villain could just steal the plans, find a weakness and destroy the whole thing or even blow it up in mid-construction. Hence the procedure.

The big problem that presented itself was: 'Who would make the inspection?' Jump City was too far away to go by foot, and the East Tower so far only had an entrance by the ocean. This meant that whoever went, would have to go by boat or flight.

Now, Starfire was excluded, as she had no clue of how to construct a tower. Beast Boy was ruled out for the same reason. In fact, the only ones who were (officially) qualified were Robin and Cyborg. As Robin's R-Cycle hadn't been equipped with a hovercraft-mode yet, Cyborg was the one to go. His T-car had all the necessities, as well as some non-necessities best left unmentioned.

So it was decreed that the metal young man would inspect the Teen Titans East, help them along and generally be a good neighbour.

That night, Robin and Starfire went out, as many young people are rumoured to do on a Saturday night. This wasn't a date, however, that concept Robin hadn't explained to Star yet.

Off the record: she knew the concept all too well, but she just preferred Robin ignorant of this little fact.

When they were gone, the conversation everyone had seen coming began.

"Those guys aren't always like that, are they?" asked Juro.

"Like what?" replied BB, watching the first broadcast round of the Battle City finals on the big screen. He'd been looking forward to it for quite some time, especially seeing as the new rules put Duel Monsters and Magic a lot closer together. Pity it wasn't live, though. It looked like the two opponents were brother and sister.

"Well, Robin's thoughts always go to Star, but they always seem to withdraw at the last possible second. Like he's afraid of what's going to happen when he says what he wants to say. And Starfire is always all over Robin, but lately, I swear I'm imagining it, but I keep catching her staring at me."

Now everyone, including the ever stoic Raven, was staring at him with wide eyes.

"What?" he asked," It's true, I swear, one moment I'm reading up on Ven Zo punching techniques, the next I see a pair of green eyes looking at me through the screen like I'm lunch and she's famished. I tell you, if it wasn't for Kai keeping watch…" he let that last bit trail off.

"What?" the green shapeshifter asked.

"Never mind. You don't need to know and you don't want to know. Believe me."

"Ah, come on, you can tell us," said Cyborg.

"No, I can't. It wouldn't be of any use for me to explain it to you, and if you knew you wouldn't be able to trust me. It's that bad."

"But…"

"I got shot because someone suspected it!" he didn't even bother to aim his shout at anyone in particular. The fact that they knew this much of him, now, was enough.

"It's not something I'm proud of, but I fear what might happen if I try to undo it. It's my burden, my curse. I will not say anything further on the subject. I'm sorry. Kai will probably tell you eventually. Just promise not to freak out when he does."

Now Raven was genuinely worried. Obviously he had made a mistake in the past, a mistake that had something to do with his familiar. This mistake had somehow led to him being shot. This kid was just a walking enigma.

The evening continued, there was a beautiful sunset, and it looked like once again, Robin and Starfire would return from their non-date at a very late time.

The mood lightened.

The friendly ambiance came back.

The alarm went off.

Apparently an unknown individual had hijacked a submarine by means irregular, which was the basic description of anything the Titans were supposed to handle. This individual had then taken the sub to an underground storage depot, where several supplies believed to be from HIVE were taken. The individual was on the run and the people who were carrying his equipment also. Only the police was chasing the equipment, the Titans just needed to apprehend this individual.

"Well, guys, looks like Brother Blood is at it again."

"Brother Blood? The last known HIVE principal?

"The very same. I take it you've had a look at his file?" it was more of a statement than a question, really. The first week had been a busy one for the new Titan.

"I have. Shouldn't we call Robin and Star?"

"Not if Blood's on the run. We might be able to corner him. And this time he won't have so many aces up his sleeve," he was referring to his past experiences with said psycho. Cyborg assumed command, for quite obvious reasons. He might as well get some practice in before his inspection.

Their chase led them underground. Cy's scanners were set to pickup any lifesigns, Juro spread out his senses and the green shapeshifter would occasionally turn into a bloodhound to pick up any scents. They were far enough from Blood to avoid detection, they knew they were going fast enough to catch up to him, so Beast Boy, between sniffing sessions, decided to start up a conversation.

Raven, by means unknown, managed to steer it toward the subject of BB's intelligence and choice of subjects.

"Hey, I happen to be very well educated in the field of animal anatomy and behaviour," he protested after one of Raven's usual, friendly jibes," and I happen to be the founder of a very sound theory regarding superheroes."

"Being?" said Raven.

"The Junior Theory," there was no stopping him now," you see, a lot of superheroes get sidekicks, as apprentices and successors," one could tell he'd rehearsed this in his mind a million times, "so you get new heroes who can do more or less the same things. But it also works the other way: because there are so many superheroes, any young hero, like us Titans, will eventually end up like one of the other heroes who already do the same things. You've got Robin and Batman, Speedy and the Green Arrow, Aquaman and Aqualad, but also Starfire and those guys from Drake's Cube X. You can always find some image of the future hero in the present."

"Makes sense," spoke the metal one, "there must be hundreds of heroes who're just part robot like me."

"And a lot of mages like myself," quoth the goth.

"And a lot of shapeshifters like me," said the green one. At that point, he went into sniffing mode again. They were entering what looked like a system of caves. They didn't really know how far they had gone or where exactly they were. Orientation is not an easy thing when one's only landmarks are rocks. Also, most of the lighting suggested it was once a mine, though some of the electrical lamps were malfunctioning.

"But what about me?" asked Juro," I'm already as powerful as a space samurai, so that's not the image of my future, and I'm pretty sure there aren't any heroes who do the stuff I can do."

"Yeah, I guess I'll have to work on that."

Right after that, Juro collapsed to the ground, holding his head and panting like his body was about to boil.

"Juro? What's wrong?" Raven asked.

"Imprint. Damn powerful one too," he panted. He was drawing in every breath like it was his last.

"Something happened here, something bad. Someone with a metal mask…he tried to control a huge power."

"Slade," Cy said.

"Don't just stand there, he needs help! Get out one of his darts and just launch it at whatever it is that's attacking him!" Beast Boy was slowly beginning to panic. It was a good thing the cave walls were so thick, otherwise the echo might have alerted Brother Blood.

"No, it's not an attack, something happened here. A lot of spirits saw it happen and they weren't too pleased about it. Their hate formed an after-image and I'm getting it blown into my face at full volume. I can see him, Slade. He's walking over to some sort of altar with a device in his hand. I can't see what's on the altar, the hate for Slade was a lot clearer than what was on it. He tried to use the device to control a power, one great enough to eradicate his adversaries. The spirits were shouting when it happened, and he relished in it. They demanded retribution for this heinous crime. They refused to believe such a thing existed at all. The power eventually collapsed under its own weight, and now it lays dormant, waiting for someone to awaken it again. Only if it is done improperly, it will destroy itself upon awakening, and everything around it."

He was looking at an empty space now, as if he'd seen a ghost, which he had, obviously.

"They left with one final message: 'It should not have been allowed to happen. It was not supposed to exist in the first place. It has brought too much pain. It needs to be left alone and what remains of it must be destroyed.' "

He got back up, the imprint having faded away. He was a little shaken, but then who wouldn't be?

"I'm fine, I just didn't see that coming. We'd better get moving."

So they did, and they were quiet from that point on. They found Brother Blood, eventually, in a large room.

"So, Titans, we meet again."

"Give up, Blood, you can't escape," spoke Cyborg as he raised his sonic cannon.

"Oh, you mean to shoot me? By all means, go ahead, I could do with a little wall between you and me," to illustrate his point, he pointed toward the cave walls, which would probably collapse after one shot.

"Oh well, if I can't blast you away, I'll just have to pound you into a pulp. Titans go!"

They charged, Cy trying to punch, Raven trying to catch the villain in a black forcefield and BB showing a wild diversity of aggressive green wildlife.

Blood was fast, though; one moment parrying, another dodging and another just giving a good solid whack.

Then along came Juro, with a Ven Zo Soaring Snagret Strike, in other words a very fast punch given from a leaping position. Blood dodged it, but only barely.

"My, my, new blood?"

"The name's Juro."

"Juro? As in Juro-jin, a God of Luck?"

"Nice to see a foe with a bit of culture."

Then the two fought, with the other Titans watching. It was quite unbelievable. They were equal. Both of them were throwing and dodging punches so fast and fluidly, it was almost impossible to follow. The sounds and sights of pebbles and dust flying told everyone that there were some serious telekinetic blasts being launched and deflected.

It suddenly dawned on Beast Boy: the one person whom Juro resembled most in his powers, was Brother Blood. That was a scary thought.

The two fighters jumped away from each other after another volley.

"Aren't you a powerful one? I can tell why they prefer you to that little blonde girl. Whatever happened to her, I wonder?"

Beast Boy, now thoroughly enraged at the very mention of Terra, stormed past Juro, transforming into a Triceratops. Brother Blood dodged the reckless attack and responded by throwing some peculiar grenade-like devices. Cy made a mental note to complain to Tilton about all the gossip media, which had let everyone know about BB's crush on Terra.

Blood made a quick exit as he threw his secret weapons.

"Get down!" shouted Cy, as it turned out Blood had appropriated a kind of target-seeking cluster bombs. Some of them were flying toward the Titans, others toward the ceiling.

When the dust had cleared, Raven let her forcefield down. Beast Boy was nowhere in sight. There was just a large pile of rubble where he had been.

"Get him!" shouted a voice from under the rubble," I'm fine, just get Blood!"

They did not waste time at that. The little green joker was more than capable of digging his way out, they knew. The chase was on, again.

When they finally found where Blood had reached the surface through a manhole, he was long gone. The hole was near an intercity road.

"Judging from the heat residue, I'd say someone picked him up here with a hoverbike and took the intercity. He's gone," stated the wizard.

"Where does that road lead to, anyway?" Raven asked.

"Steel City," spoke Cyborg, lost in his own thoughts.

They contacted their buried comrade. He said he'd dig his way out, but some of the rocks were too hard, so he'd have to take an underground detour. He'd meet them back at the Tower, he said.

"I'm going after him," said Juro," I can pinpoint his location from here, and I'll make sure he gets back safely. Some of those tunnels can be treacherous, even for him."

They all agreed. Cy had the T-car pick them up and Juro decided to go after the green Titan.

There are many advantages to being able to turn into any animal. For one thing, night vision in certain forms allows one to look or even stare at something without needing to turn on the lights. So he sat there, watching the one thing he could watch more than television. There were no lights, so he could remain completely undetected. Then he heard a faint whistling. It got louder. Someone had found him. He decided to hide.

Then he heard a voice calling:

"BB, I hope you're not turned into anything light-sensitive!"

He quickly resumed his human form. Juro had managed to make a way through the cave labyrinth.

Of course, he could read his mind, and it was pretty obvious where he was: Slade's old headquarters. Juro approached him, having found the central light switch.

"I should've known you'd follow me," spoke the green youth.

"Yeah, I thought we could have a little heart to heart. You seem very troubled about something, and I'm guessing that there is it."

He pointed toward the ridge. There stood the statue of a girl, wrapped in some kind of metallic suit.

"You're right. That's what's left of Terra," replied the green Titan, with an obvious tinge of sadness in his voice. He saw Juro look at her with an inquisitive look.

"What are you thinking?"

"The truth?"

"Yes."

"I'm thinking she's very thin, but very pretty, which implies her power was very exhausting. I'm also thinking it was a shame to let such beauty be destroyed."

"You're awfully poetic about it."

"Sorry, it's just a personal feeling I have. I can't stand to see the destruction of anything beautiful, particularly when girls are involved. It's my only weakness; really."

"Can I ask you something?" Beast Boy was a lot more serious than usual.

"You just did, but okay."

"Why did you decide to be a hero? Why won't you tell anyone about your problems? You're a telepath, you already know everybody's problems, it's not fair."

"Woah, too many questions. I know: let's play a game. I've done this a million times with therapists. You ask me a question, any question at all, bearing in mind that I have contacted spirits of celebrities passing by. I answer it completely truthfully, and then you must do the same when I ask you a question. We take turns, you ask first."

"Okay, then," now he was really concentrating," what were you talking about when you mentioned your curse? What is it that you're so scared of letting anyone know?"

"I knew you'd ask that. Alright, picture yourself in high school, with your own powers. You know for a fact that if you don't practise regularly, you will eventually lose your powers. So you just practise in class, because otherwise you don't have enough time. Now people become afraid of you, and isolation sets in. Every guy shuns you because they know you can kill them at a moment's notice, and every girl is scared of you because the guys think you're a freak.   
You wish to end this. What do you do? You seek to combine your powers with some kind of tolerance. That is what I did: I cast a permanent spell to appear less threatening. I tied it to my familiar, so I wouldn't have to pour energy into it every second. Only a second effect of it was that the girls actually started to like me. Something about women being instinctively drawn to forms of magic I hadn't counted on. So now the guys don't just see me as someone to avoid, they see me as a threat. Then the only real friend you have suddenly breaks up with her boyfriend. Guess what the boyfriend did?"

"He shot you?"

"Yeah, only shooting doesn't really work against a space samurai. I was forced to demonstrate the fact that nothing anyone could throw at me was enough to rid the world of me. So then they were all terrified."

"Wow. So that's why you and Kai are never in the same room. You might steal away Starfire by accident. That's why she was staring at you. You're like a chick-magnet when the two poles are present," the thought seemed to bring up a lot of good ideas in Beast Boy…

"Now I shall ask you a question."

"Uh-oh."

"Why is Cyborg so obsessed with Brother Blood? His thoughts seem bent only on revenge, but the reason why never crosses his mind."

"Oh, that. He's just angry because Blood stole his blueprints and used them to build a new headquarters. It's kind of a vendetta between the two of them."

"I see."

"Okay, next question: why did you do it? Why did you want to become what you are?"

He shrugged. "I wasn't a strong or sportive kid like everyone else. They made fun of me. So I decided to become stronger than them, just to show them. They didn't believe I could beat them, now they'd wet their pants as soon they see me. I just didn't want to end up a nobody, so I became more of a somebody most people could handle. I know it's a wrong reason, but it got me where I am today. That should be enough to answer that. We should start heading back."

"Yeah, you're right."

"But I'm still going to ask you questions."

"Shoot."

"How close are you to Raven?"

They arrived, unharmed, at the Tower. They were greeted by their companions, but naturally two of them were still on a non-date.

It was the end of yet another day at the T-Tower.

And Juro had learned some very interesting things that day.


	7. Dead man playing?

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Yu-Gi-Oh. Also, the little bit about Crash of Rhinos is based partially on facts.  
Special thanks to: all of my readers and reviewers. I will do my best to return the favour. Particular attention to Mugglebuddy, thank you for your patience and multitude of reviews. It's very reassuring to know that if there are plot holes between the three Tales of Chaos at least one person will notice them. And in case you're wondering: the trick is re-reading after every single minor alteration to the documents. That's how I've managed (with moderate success) to avoid typos.

* * *

Chapter 7: Dead man playing?

When the part-robotic Titan departed, everyone wished him the best of luck. Aqualad and Bumblebee had confirmed that Brother Blood was headed for Steel City, so old Cy might have the chance to finally settle the score.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy looked forward to a game-a-thon with his space samurai friend. Kai the familiar stayed in his room, for reasons only Beast Boy could guess. He had his own thoughts about that 'attraction spell' Juro had supposedly cast on himself. From what he knew, it was an overlapping field effect: where Juro's aura and Kai's met, the chicks would fall. The only way to avoid any difficulties with Raven (not to mention Robin and Star) would be to keep Kai in a special sphere Juro had rigged in his room.

'Oh well, at least he admits it. It must have been really hard for him, though, to resort to that,' he thought.

After another close defeat (Juro still held back occasionally), the two interrupted their game for their favourite show: Gone Gamin'. The topic was, of course, the Battle City finals in Domino City. The first semi-finalist was known: Namu, apparently the brother of his last opponent, what were the odds? The whole thing was just a media deal, actually: the matches they were watching had been played days ago. Kaiba Corp just didn't let the world know who won until the money started flowing, and even then...It was kind of a disgrace to the TCG industry, when one thought about it.

"You know, I have connections in the gaming business, well, more like one connection," said the chance mage.

"Wha…?"

"Yeah: Duke Devlin. Him and I were partners at one point."

Meanwhile the commentator was rattling on about what a weird and uninteresting match round 2 had been, rather than just get on with it. The media seemed to be the only ones lapping this up, there was even an anime about Duel Monsters called 'Me-Go-Ah', but the decks the characters used were pathetic to say the least. This all went through BB's oft underestimated mind when he realised what Juro had just said.

"Get out. You're serious? But he's never even been to Jump City."

"We talked on the Internet. He said he was working on a game, but that he needed some financial support. I said: 'Sign up for a quiz show, I'll handle the rest,' and I used my powers of chance to get him on the show. It was a little experiment to see if I could alter other people's luck as well."

"What happened?"

"A few days before the show I mailed to him that he should check out the site of Magic: the Gathering. I think Mirage was the set at the moment. Anyways, I told him to look only at the green cards."

"Why?"

"Because that, my friend, gave him the answer to the final, crucial question: 'What is the collective name for rhinos?' the answer being a crash. Nobody else knew this, but there was a green card in Mirage called Crash of Rhinos, so Duke, having studied that card as well, got to go home with a good deal of sponsorship. Of course, he only knows me under my alias, cripplingchaos666. Still, he was kind enough to give me a method of identification, should I ever be in the neighbourhood."

Suddenly his attention went back to the screen. The second round, it turned out, had been between living legend Yugi Motou and an unknown player by the name of Richard Crease. The weird thing was, Crease had lost on purpose. A photo of him appeared, as the match itself could not be broadcast due to atmospheric interference.

"It can't be…" spoke Juro.

"What is it?" asked Raven, who had just entered the room in hopes of watching the late-night thriller. The two gaming fanatics had been at it for a very long time, and this was a re-run from the afternoon show.

"That guy's not Richard Crease, that's Arthur Dent!"

"Who?" the other two Titans both asked in sync.

"Arthur Dent, the dead guy who gave me the Guide."

"But if he's dead, how could he have duelled a few days ago?" came the question from no particular source.

"I don't know. Maybe it's got something to do with alternate realities. Kai said he'd been around some strange things. Perhaps he fell through some holes in reality. It could be he's dead in one world but alive in another, so where the two overlap he starts blinking in and out of life."

"You need to stop reading that Guide so much," was the general opinion voiced by those present.

A few seconds later, Robin and Starfire left on another one of their unofficial dates. The paparazzi had wisely decided to leave the young Titans be, the new god included, though he didn't go out much. To make a long story short: the deal went from 'following the Titans as long as they weren't working' to 'following them at your own risk'. Needless to say, the prospect of getting bombed saw a lot of reporters taking their business elsewhere.

And for the record: Robin still didn't realise Starfire's knowledge on the subject of dating.

That all being said, Juro didn't dwell on the supposedly dead player. He'd lost the duel, probably while being in some lower level of the ethereal, and he'd vanished.

End of story.

(A/N: I do hope you didn't take me THAT serious just now; the story's not over yet)

No, Juro had some other proverbial fish to fry. For one thing, he intended to contact a few spirits to talk about that power Slade had tried to abuse. This left BB and Raven alone to watch the thriller. The former nearly had a heart-attack, the latter kept wondering why BB couldn't just close his eyes at the scary bits.

When it was over, Raven headed for her bed. She was fully aware of the fact that Beast Boy only wanted to be friends with her, she just wished he wouldn't make such a fool of himself while trying. It was another worry for another day.

She passed Juro's room, when she heard someone quite distinctly speaking with the tone of one who is trying to restrain himself.

"Lady, you know much I respect you, but please don't change the subject. As much as I am thrilled to hear your tidings, you still haven't answered my question."

Raven couldn't help but eavesdrop.

"Come now, you can't fool me," spoke a beautiful woman's voice," you were always under the impression that you were unique, even I was under that impression. And now it seems there is another like you, but you're so preoccupied with this contained power you can't even enjoy a bit of good news. Now are you going to answer the door or not?"

The door opened at Juro's telekinetic command. Raven had gotten used to being startled like this; it didn't even show any more.

"Raven, meet Lady Kaguya; spirit of a moonfolk, legend in Japan and personal spiritual guide. Lady Kaguya, meet Raven; powerful sorceress, expert at the unknown and dear friend."

"The pleasure's all mine," spoke the Lady. She was slightly transparent, quite tall and she had thin limbs. She had the kind of face that made men's heads spin, Raven knew.

"Charmed," quoth the goth.

"We were just discussing my recent trip to Odaiba," said Kaguya. "There was a bit of a celebration in my honour, so naturally I paid it a visit. They gave the most delightful play, especially considering the leading actors. There was a lot of love between them."

Juro gave Raven a discreet mental message that the Lady who stood before them could be quite the chatterbox, and that it was considered rude to interrupt her. Add to that her quasi-royal status among her kind, and manners, not to mention patience, suddenly became vital.

"In any event, I spotted another mage like your friend," she said to Raven," there are some differences, but the first power is identical: he can alter chance and reality in the exact same way as Juro. But that's not what you wanted to know, is it?"

"You know what I wish to hear, Lady," the now not-so-unique wizard replied.

"Yes, you wish to know about that dormant power. Your patience is admirable, you know, I've never met another mortal who could keep a conversation going with me."

"Practice, Milady, practice," he almost sighed the words out.

"Indeed. Well, ask away then."

Raven and Juro exchanged glances. Raven was more confused than anything else, Juro just gave a look saying 'Don't go there'.

"I would like to know how it happened. How did this power survive if Slade didn't destroy it?"

"He thought he had, but he underestimated it. His machines were meant to control it, but when it gave a surge of power, it short-circuited the control device. The device wasn't destroyed either, it is still intact, but if this power should fully awaken, the control device will destroy it completely. Even if it is awakened partially, the device may trigger. It was constructed to be parasitic, running on the very thing it infected. If the power should awaken, when it reaches a certain level, the device will trigger again, trying to control it. The power itself will then react to it, destroying everything near it. It has caused much grief already."

"Then how was it created? Did a human start all this?"

"Yes and no. It was a spirit who wanted to help humans that started all this, but exactly what he did I do not know. You will have to find him yourself."

"So basically, what you're saying is, I have to trace its origins through the astral plane."

"Yes, that's right."

"Very well, then, I'll do that."

"You intend to awaken this power yourself, I take it?" asked the Moon-Maiden.

"It would make an interesting project."

Raven kept quiet. She knew about spirits, but she'd never contacted them. Most of them were probably scared of her anyway. She thought it prudent not to interrupt the conversation, all things considered.

"Alright, then, but don't be a baka. If you try it and you're not ready for it, there will be a corpse in the T-Tower."

Juro took a deep breath at that remark. He nodded, and the spirit departed with a flourish.

"Charming," said Raven.

"Yes, but she's been very helpful."

"You're really going to start a new project to awaken this power?"

"Yep. It won't be easy, but I can do it. So I will," he had a smile on his face that reminded Raven of a certain green shapeshifter who'd once nearly opened the gate to Hell by spilling blood on her book.

"I get the feeling there's something you're not telling me," Raven said, raising an eyebrow.

"Like what?"

She looked to a corner of the room.  
"Well, for one thing, your familiar is lying in a protective circle. You wouldn't do that unless there's a magic field you wish to block. But when I talk to him alone and when we were all talking to him, I sensed nothing. So that would mean the field needs to overlap something else to be active."

"Very observant."

At that, Raven gave a little grin. It was the sort of 'I know what you did last summer'-grin, instead of her usual 'now you're gonna get it'-expression, or even the renowned 'put up with BB'-smile.

"You cast some sort of love spell, didn't you? One that only works if you and Kai are in close proximity."

"You've found me out. Now you know my terrible secret."

"No. There's something else. You know something about that power the rest of us don't. It might have something to do with that bird you need to kill, when was that again?" she briefly considered trying to scan his mind, but she decided against it. She was better at sending messages than at reading minds.

"Not for a long time. And no, in case you're wondering, he wasn't referring to you or Robin. It's just a bird that will appear in a nightclub far away, and in only a long time. You're not angry at me, are you?"

She had something between a smile and a grin on her face now; depending on the situation, anyone who saw her like that would fall in love or break into a run. Juro just looked fascinated, if a bit surprised.

"Not angry, intrigued. It's nice to have another mage in the team. Especially one as strange as you. It makes me feel less of an outsider."

She immediately began questioning what she'd just said. Was she actually having feelings for him? He was another mage, like her, he was troubled, like her, he knew how to control his emotions (if the TV-expert Beast Boy was to be believed), even though he didn't always want to. It was a near perfect match. She'd have to consult her meditative mirror again. Her ponderings were interrupted, though.

"Why Raven, if I didn't know any better I'd think you just gave me a compliment."

Good, he hadn't scanned her mind. Was that courtesy or just lack of interest? She decided to leave. She bade him good night.

She went to her mental landscape, as she had done so many times before. Her anger was there, her sense of humour, her desire to fight, all well under control as they should be. Every single mage had some control over his emotions, be it for more power or more control. In Raven's case, it was a little bit of both. Anger glared at her, as did her will to fight, though that one was more of a scrappy type than an aggressive one. All of her other sides were there as well, waiting for the real-world Raven to address them. She didn't, though. When she was here, all of her emotions listened to her command. She could decide to let one of them gain the upper hand, which would result in a different real-world personality. All of them combined to make Raven who she was in the real world. Her emotions were subject to the power of her will.

Of course, when other people got in here, things could get real screwy.

There was only one side of her she wanted to see right now: the one that could fall in love. That one had been quiet for a long time now.

She was dressed in a shade of pink so light it could've been mistaken for white. All of her distinguishing features were exaggerated just a tiny little bit. Her costume, for instance, was different from that of all the others. The love Raven had no sleeves and nothing that came even close to her neck, which made the whole outfit look like a bathing suit with a cape attached to it. The fact that it only barely covered some tantalising bits of her anatomy only added to that effect. Then there was the body itself; a few pounds off where it was preferred and a few pounds more where they were wanted. The sight of her left nothing to the beholder's imagination.

Needless to say, Raven had always felt a little uneasy when talking to this side of her. And a bit jealous, perhaps.

Actually, one could be very clear on this; jealousy is exactly what she felt.

"Hello," said the pink one in her usual dreamy tone.

"Hi," said the original. Conversations with this pink Raven usually started the way they ended: in frustration.

"What brings you here?"

"You know why I'm here," it's not easy being a goth and knowing you have something like THAT living in your head and it showed.

"Ah yes, the new chance wizard, eh? He's cute. He looks a lot like Robin, which is certainly not a bad thing, but on top of that he's a mage like you. You should ask him out or something," why this side of her always sounded like a schoolgirl was beyond Raven.

"How do I know you're not just saying that because of that love spell?"

"Because he's been very careful about it. If you think about it, you've only been exposed to it once, and that was when you first met him. Of course, our dear alien friend has had more of it, what with her barging in on him like she always does," the Love Raven was keen to spot that sort of thing.

"So then, I am in love with him."

"No, I am in love with him. You can't afford to just fall in love and neither can he. You're both doomed because of your magic. You have control over your emotions, you control me, so you are unable to just fall in love like you want to."

This would have brought tears to anyone's eyes, but Raven was still as calm as ever. She still felt a dagger through her heart, though. She'd known this since the first time she came to Earth, even since her lessons on Azarath, which had taught her the very thing she was cursing now.

"Which means I truly will live alone."

"Of course not, silly cow, you've still got one alternative."

It hit her like an anvil, which is a painful thing in a world that only exists in the mind.

"You can't be serious."

"Why not? Are you afraid of what it'll do to him or to you? Don't tell me you're afraid of hurting Beast Boy? He's just trying to be a friend, Raven, his heart still belongs to Terra and it will until someone else like her shows up. Besides, he's too scrawny for our tastes. And I, for one, do not relish the prospect of sleeping with a gorilla."

The Love Raven would always come up with arguments like that.

"So you really think I should…"

"Well, yes, but not right away, of course, get a bit closer to him first; he seems to know about things you never studied so you've got something to talk about, at least. Heck, you can even talk to that turtle friend of his. Besides, you know how the ritual works. You can't do it just like that."

"You're right. I can't."

She woke up from her trance state. Her mind was made up. If falling in love wasn't an option, she'd just have to jump , so to speak. She could master her emotions, so could Juro, and they had a lot in common, so Raven had a choice.

She would do it. She'd try to get as close as she could, and then she would do it.

She only hoped she wouldn't end up killing anyone in the process.

After all, the ritual she would use had originally been designed as a weapon.

* * *

There's going to be quite a few mysteries in this fic, some you will find obvious, others completely unsolvable.My idea is to give you some 'head-smacking' moments. Also keep in mind the Tales of Chaos are entwined. If you see something unresolved, chances are it's resolved in another story. 

Also, please don't lynch me for not writing a BB/Raven fic. I have other plans for BB that don't really involve falling love at all.

Grand, incredible plans...okay, so I'm rambling, if you want to get even, review and say it!


	8. Contacting spirits for Dumboheads

Disclaimer: The title of this chap is a nod to Starrytian's 'Matchmaking for Dumboheads', it's a good fic if you're into RobStar drenched in good old-fashioned comedy. And no, she doesn't know I gave her this nod, so credit where credit is due, I'd say. Other than that, I still don't own Teen Titans (hey, I'm working on it, okay?), or the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (damn intergalactic postmen, always get the planet wrong).

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Chapter 8: Contacting spirits for Dumboheads.

That had been one fell battle. The Titans stood on the roof of the Eastern Tower, with their associates from Steel City. Raven stood next to Juro, as she was afraid he might faint. It was the early morning and they had had an early battle against one vicious foe.

It had started when Cyborg got the idea in his head that he should lead the Eastern Titans team, a decision they later found was influenced by Brother Blood, who had taken over the minds of the Teen Titans East, as well as that of professor Chang, who had escaped from prison earlier. Some time after, Blood's infiltration hadbecome fully apparent, and the Titans had come to help. Apparently Blood had prepared for their latest addition, simply by building more robots in advance. About fifty robots, each with the same speed and weaponry as Cyborg himself, had been created with the sole intention of burying Juro under their weight and exhausting him, while Blood procured new assets by giving his subjects cybernetic implants. Then, when the dust had settled, he would have been able to face him with superior numbers, as the other Titans would be either under his control or downed altogether.

The only thing that had stopped that plan, had been Cyborg. Blood had tried so hard to take over his mind, that the energy he poured into it was bounced back, crippling his psychic abilities and all the powers he got from them. Meanwhile, Juro had used his double-bladed lightsaber to make mincemeat of his mechanical assailants. He never used it against an unarmed opponent, or against anyone he had to capture alive, but this time he'd used it a lot.

He still didn't look all that tired on the outside, but there was something else. Raven knew aftersickness when she saw it. The body can be trained to contain more energy, the mind can be trained to summon more energy, but somewhere along the way, stress sets in. It was never visible to anyone but the truly adept, but it was there. The energy he had summoned to fight had exhausted parts of his core being. Not his body, not his mind, but his very soul was on the brink of collapse.

He still acted as if nothing had happened.

Bumblebee was put in charge, Cyborg had resolved his issues and Blood, as well as Chang, were captured. The Titans headed home.

Later in the evening, back in the T-Tower, the team was having a little celebration over pizza and a wide variety of foods not even indigenous to Earth. They were going to watch a new movie in the cinema, but Juro decided to hit the sack early. Raven stayed behind as well. She gave him a few minutes, just to make sure she wouldn't interrupt anything. She'd hate to barge in while he was putting on his pyjamas. She approached his room, this time there were no voices coming and there was no distinguishable movement.

She gently knocked. Kai answered the door, which only confirmed what she'd thought: Juro had a case of aftersickness.

So he did have a real weakness after all. She'd have to ask Beast Boy about that.

"Come on in, Raven," the turtle thing said," I'm sure he won't mind. He's a very sound sleeper, but he can talk in his sleep if he wants to."

"Thank you," she tried to keep her voice monotone, she really did, but it was getting harder and harder. She noticed Juro had put a protective circle around his own bed as well as Kai's, which meant she was feeling her own emotions. She pushed them back, despite the fact that they felt so good. She knelt down to Juro's bed, putting her arms on it. She noticed he wasn't wearing his mask now, and idly wondered if Robin, not to mention every other superhero, did the same.

"Will," she spoke softly, trying to get his attention without fully waking him up. He frowned, then stirred a bit in his sleep. When a mage was in this state, it was best if he didn't move or even think too much.

"Hmm?" he was conscious, but not really awake. His eyes were still closed.

"I know," was all Raven needed to say, really. She leaned a bit closer to his face. She could feel his breathing now. He had such a peaceful feel around him. How he had ended up fighting the way he did was a mystery.

"Know what?" he mumbled.

"The after-effects of this morning. You stressed yourself, Will."

"Nothing a good night's sleep won't cure," he replied quietly.

He was right on that note; if one could access the right level of awareness, it only took a night's sleep to recover, provided the damage wasn't too big.

"Why didn't you let anyone know?" she was really worried. She hadn't thought about anyone like this since Malchior.

"I didn't want you to be worried. We are Titans, you know. If Blood knew, the whole underworld would know in a week," he still didn't open his eyes. Raven thought it was best to just leave him be for now. He looked so peaceful, though, it was unnerving. She wondered if Starfire had ever seen Robin like that. She left his room. He'd probably have forgotten their short conversation by tomorrow morning.

If he hadn't forgotten about it, he sure knew how to act. The very next day saw the God of Longevity alongside Raven during her meditation, as always. He acted as if he had tons to do and very little time to do them in. After breakfast, he proceeded to go out to the beach and use his telekinetic powers to scrape off barnacles. When asked why he was doing this; he simply replied:

"It's for my Lucky Seven Project."

Things continued this way throughout the day, until in the afternoon he started summoning spirits in his room. Now those that he knew were friendly enough, but those that he didn't, he wasn't sure of.

So it happened that the Titans, on their way to the main common room, heard a peculiar variety of roar, followed by a muffled explosion. Juro exited, dart in hand, and covered in ectoplasmic slime.

"I just realised, I really should've taken a room closer to the showers."

They just laughed, but Robin was a little worried. Raven had told him about the aftersickness and Robin immediately had to know if Raven, being a mage herself, had the same weakness. She had more than enough experience to avoid stressing herself too much, not to mention the minor detail of demon blood she hadn't told anyone about.

After his shower and subsequent cleansing of his room, Juro found his team-mates were worried enough to confront him.

"Listen, it's not that we think you shouldn't try, but it's just that you're pushing yourself. Seriously, you've been at it all day. Besides, you're still new here. We'd just like to be involved if you're going to do this."

So they came to a compromise: he'd stop pushing himself so much and he'd let them in on some of the details, as they all realised they didn't even know what kind of power he was going to awaken, and in return they wouldn't disturb him when he was working on his so-called 'Lucky Seven Project'. It was just his seventh project. Cyborg was curious, though, what the other six had been. But that didn't matter.

So it happened that that very evening, the Teen Titans got together for a séance. Juro had found a spirit who had come into contact with the power, and he hoped that the trail would continue to the origins of it, giving him some very vital information. He did warn the Titans about the dialogues they could expect: the spirit he had found was an elemental spirit, a variety that tended to dislike humans, what with industry and everything. They also weren't too talkative, so most conversations were conducted using keywords, leaving a lot of room for interpretation.

Raven and Robin both immediately noted that this made it a lot easier for Juro to hide anything from them. Starfire and Beast Boy just thought it would be cool, though they didn't say it in the same words. Cyborg was doing his best to avoid looking scared, and did a fine job at it, it should be noted.

In any event, come nightfall, the main room was darkened and a locator sigil was drawn on a piece of paper, which was put in the centre of the circle the Titans had formed. Everyone was given a small dart, just in case a malevolent spirit decided to enter the Tower. They all relaxed, as was the custom when communing, and Juro activated the sigil. It sprang to life, like a hieroglyph jumping out of a tomb wall, and promptly flew through the wall and out to wherever it needed to be.

Next to the sigil was a bowl of sand, which would have to serve as vocal amplifier. In lay terms: the sigil was the phone number, the bowl the receiver, and Juro was the speaker. Contact was made after a few minutes. The sand started to move, taking the shape of a face.

"Good people. Long time," the face said.

They quickly found it meant; 'It's nice to be contacted by good people like you. It's been a long time since that happened.'

"Hello, I take it you know why we are contacting you?" Juro asked.

"Chaos? Very long time. Split."  
This was a bit more difficult to decipher. The speaker tried again.

"We seek information about a power you came into contact with."

"Ah. Power. Great power. Good power. Much sadness."  
So at least they had the right spirit. Now all they needed to do was actually get the information they wanted.

"What more can you tell us of this, please?" the God of Luck continued.

"Grand power. Much sadness. Came from far. All connected."  
Contacting otherworldly intelligences was and is a tricky thing to do; you have to make sure you're getting the message right, which is exactly what the would-be space samurai did.

"Do you mean to say more spirits came into contact with it, but that you're all connected?"

This was followed by a gesture of the face in the bowl, a nod, meaning they were on the right track. Juro then asked if the spirit could direct them to those others, which it did. They managed to track the power along a rather long way actually.

Eventually they came across the first spirit to encounter the power: the one that had created it. All of the others had shown impassive, almost featureless faces, but this one looked like a sad person.

"Disturb. Why?"  
This one was even less talkative than all of the others.

"We seek information on a power."

"No. Power. Leave alone. Such sorrow. Mistake."

"Did you create it?"

"Sorrow. Help. More sorrow.  
Pain. Help. More pain.  
Weak. Help. Death."  
It sounded pleading now.

"How did you create it? We wish to help."

"Not create... Pain... Help... Awaken... Bind... Sorry... Mistake... Buried... Sleep..."

Apparently the last spirit was really sensitive about this, because that was the last they heard of it. The face melted away, and everyone was thoroughly tired. It had been an eventful day, one that had actually started off more tiring than it had ended, what with their new friend making very little sense and all.

Everyone had their own thoughts about what those spirits had said.

Everyone wondered what would happen when Juro succeeded, or if he failed.

Only Juro knew the truth. He knew this whole thing had confused them. He knew what he needed to do. He knew the risk.

But if the other Titans found out, they would be a problem.

And if he failed, the T-Tower would have to deal with some corpses.

He also noted, if they found out before they were ready, at least one of the Titans would try to kill him.

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I wonder if I gave away what the Lucky Seven Project is now. I know what it is, obviously, but were the clues too much? Is there a chance that somebody who is reading this has also read or seen the other works and series I'm basing this on, and as such knows what's going to happen?Is it possible that someone among you has heard of or even seenthis power already on TV? State your suspicions in the reviews, and eventually you will learn if you were right. Just look at the clues in this chapter again, please, before you do. Which Titan would want to kill him if (s)he knew the truth? Why? What's up with the barnacles? And just what did the spirits mean by their message?  
It's no contest, but I am curious to hear what you all think. So review, if you would be so kind. 

Also note, the new added weakness to Juro was planned and scheduled, as well as a third one that can spell certain doom for him if it should ever be found and abused.


	9. Reality Checks and TV Bills 1

Disclaimer 1: I still don't own the Teen Titans or Juro (just warn me if you want to use him, though) and I certainly don't own the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. My copy got lost in the mail, believe it or not. For some reason, the delivery men never get past Pluto.

Author's notes: This is supposed to be what the series would look like if Juro had been included, obviously. This is indeed a direct attempt to re-write an existing episode and while doing so give Cyborg a bit more attention, as he hasn't had the same experiences with Juro quite yet. Obviously, I'll also try to get the same feel of the ep down, but with a lot more drama. There are some references to 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to Tamaran', but you should have no trouble following this without having read the Guide. More details and another long disclaimer are set below. Please note the rating, I'm really gonna push it in this longer than usual chapter.  
On one final note: "RobStar I hath promised, RobStar thou shalt get!" but not in the way you'd like, I fear.

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Chapter 9: Reality checks and TV-bills (part 1)

"I'm serious, Juro, stop it. As the leader of this team, I am telling you to stop!" Robin had been angrier than this at some points in his life, but not often and not by much. He and Juro were arguing in the main room when the rest of the team came in. Raven wondered why he'd stopped his meditations early that morning. He must have said something really terrible to upset their leader like that. Nobody knew exactly what, though they were all thinking the same thing: Robin didn't agree with Juro's project and the secrecy around it.

"Calm down already, Rob, don't take it out on me that you can't…"

His sentence was interrupted by a fist in the face. Robin was seething now, and shaking as well. He'd punched a team mate. Worse, he'd punched the new kid, which was still what he was. He'd only really been in two or three fights, and even though he'd fared better than expected, he was still the new kid.

And now the new kid had Robin's fist in his face. Robin withdrew.

"You know, next time you could just ask," Juro said, "save the violence for those who deserve it."

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," the Boy Wonder was more surprised at himself than anything else.

"I do," came the reply.

The other Titans didn't really know what'd happened and neither Robin nor Juro seemed inclined to share.  
Robin told them not to worry.  
Juro told them the problem was resolved.

So they minded their own business. Breakfast passed silently, and Beast Boy planted himself in front of the TV as he had done for quite a few days now. Raven went to her room to meditate some more, Robin went to the gym to try and work things out with himself while his Tamaranean friend took her pet worm out for a walk. Lunch passed in a similar fashion.

The only one who didn't let it rest was Cyborg. While the mortal God of Luck headed towards his room to work on his project, the mechanical teen decided he was going to push the subject just a bit more. He didn't really know that much about him to begin with, apart from the fact that he was a very powerful kind of mage and probably not as stable as most people would think. Said mage stopped right before he reached his room, but it seemed he'd not noticed the big mass of circuitry and muscle following him until he'd been five paces away.

"I take it you want to talk?" the blue and grey-clad mage said. It occurred to Cy that if this kid could pick up thoughts so easily, as he had claimed on day one, he'd know what Cy was planning. He'd know what he wanted to talk about, why, and skip all the charades that usually preceded this sort of talk.

"Yeah, it's not often somebody gets Rob so upset. The last guy to do that is dead and buried. So I want to know just what you said to him," this was a very sensitive point for Cyborg. It had always been him to argue with the leader, always he would be the one to tick Robin off a bit to drive him to something he didn't know he could do. And, of course, he could count on Robin to return the favour. They'd had their differences, but it was still clear: Robin was the alpha male, Cyborg was second in line. If this kid was thinking of disrupting that volatile situation, he'd have another thing coming.

"Robin made it very clear I shouldn't talk to anyone about this. Besides, it doesn't concern you."

"Hey, we are on the same team. I don't always agree with him, but Robin is a good leader and a damn good friend. Now I want to know what you said," Cy nearly threatened. He only now realised Juro was only a head smaller than him. If not for the mechanical implants, Cy would be roughly the same size. As it was, Juro only reached chest-height, which made for an intimidating look. The red eye helped a lot, too.

"Okay, you want to know what the problem is? I'll tell you. I've got a natural curiosity that's leading me to look for answers to questions nobody's asked. I practise an art that affects my personality and makes me look arrogant to everybody I meet, and the only solution I could find for it has caused me a whole new world of trouble. I've got a Guide with billions upon billions of bytes of information in it, yet it's proven to be wrong on the one thing it should've been right about. Robin knew it was wrong, but he kept it to himself. I found out and he went out of control."

"Sorry, but I'm not buying it. There's nothing that could drive him over the edge like that. The last time I heard him talk in that tone, was when Slade was still around…"

Cyborg let that thought trail off. He got out his sonic cannon and put it to Juro's face.

"You're involved with Slade, aren't you? You're his son and the whole school drama was a cover-up, huh?"

Juro just stood there, looking into the cannon. It was a good thing he knew nobody could interrupt them, because Cy was really itching to pull the trigger.

"Actually, that's not it. Slade's not a problem anymore. And I have no allegiance to him in any way. You're thinking along the wrong lines. Robin wanted me to switch off my inner telepathic receiver, so I wouldn't pick up anybody's thoughts or secrets. Think about it, Cy, what's Robin's most sensitive point? What keeps him up at night, what's his biggest problem, where is his weak link?"

Cy lowered the cannon when he realised what his team mate was saying.

"Starfire…this is about Star, isn't it?"

"Now you know why he wants to keep it secret. I know why he won't let Starfire get closer, I know why he always backs away when she's around and I know how their dates end. The fact that I know gives me power over him, and his natural reflex is to see me as evil. And I can tell you, that's not a nice thing to know."

Cyborg was about to ask what the big secret was, when the alarms went off. It was the domestic alarm, the one that wasn't supposed to be pushed unless the Tower itself was under attack. The one that had a specific notice on it in case a certain green changeling just needed help finding the remote.

"So are you gonna tell me?" Cy asked.

"Let BB try and figure it out for you," Juro answered," he'll explain it better than me. And he'll understand it better, too."

Apparently Beast Boy had seen Control Freak on TV and explained it in his usual enlightened and certainly calm tone, being freaked out, with waving arms and a distinct lack of full sentences. His credibility, however, was slightly shot by the fact his time in front of the TV had been far greater than that not in front of it, for the past week or two.

It turned out Control Freak had broken out, and the Titans set out to counter his evil TV-controlling spree. Robin only needed to glare to remind his team mate of the 'no telepathy' rule he'd just instated. Raven, for one, wasn't worried about it. Everybody has soft spots and the new mage on the team just had a way of stumbling upon theirs.

It didn't change her plans one bit.

That being said, when Control Freak's signal was located, it turned out to be TV-shop, proving once again they were dealing with the single most stereotypical villain known to man.

As they entered, the TV's sprang to life. One showed a soap opera about a bunch of kids who went into computers for some strange reason. 'Code Tokyo' or some such nonsense, which was odd because it was actually a French show. The nerdy character had a thing for the gal who was actually a hero computer program, while two others made a point of beating around several bushes romance-wise. The only other guy left, the one who looked decidedly gay, was in fact involved in a very passionate romance with a juvenile delinquent. All of this information streamed out of Beast Boy's mouth as some computer villain named A.N.A.L (completely coincidentally, of course) unleashed a form of laser-shooting maggots on the unsuspecting real world of the show.

The other Titans paid him no heed. BB had a knack for television, and they respected him for who he was.

Another TV showed a talk show of one Barry Winter, the only show to have more 'BLEEPs' in it than actual conversations. Another still showed an old episode of 'Clash of the Planets', one of BB's favourites and the same show Juro had memorised all the episodes of, for some strange reason. BB just kept staring at the screen when all of a sudden the Control Freak appeared on TV.

"Hello Titans! Hope you're enjoying the show, 'coz you'll never catch me!"

"We will find where you're hiding, Control Freak!" the Titans' fearless leader replied.

"Who's hiding? I'm right here!" he was on a TV behind Robin now," or am I here? Or here?" he was all around them.

He kept jumping from TV to TV all the while laughing and taunting. That's when Cyborg pulled out his scanner and announced what they'd all feared: Control Freak was inside the TV's; he'd turned himself into a broadcast wavelength and now he was literally channel-hopping.

"Uh, guys?" Beast Boy called. He'd found the villain's equipment, which was basically one big remote, in true Control Freak fashion. The Titans were stunned by what they saw, and Cyborg got to work on trying to pull the televised maniac back into real life.

There was a flash of light.

There was a darkness.

Then there was a disturbingly loud audience shouting 'Barry! Barry! Barry!'

It didn't take long for the team to realise their green friend had suffered from an itchy button finger, zapping them all into the televised horror that was 'The Barry Winter Show'.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, the topic for today is: 'The love of my life can kill me whenever it's convenient.' We have with us today Heero Yui and Relena Peacecraft," they looked like regular young people who could barely kill a rabbit, let alone each other," and now let's welcome Robin and Starfire!"

The man with glasses signalled to his bodyguards to get the two guests to their chairs and the rest off the set. The last thing Robin heard before he got swept up in the programme was Juro saying:

"See, this is why I prefer to know what my team mates are thinking. At least I might stop them from doing anything foolish."

What followed was a series of BLEEPs from Beast Boy, some BLEEPs from Raven to Beast Boy and Cyborg even called them all BLEEPs to shut them the BLEEP up.  
Barry paid them no heed.

"Now then, Robin, what deadly advantage do you have over your girlfriend?"

Robin, in a reflex, replied; "Me? She's the one who can blow my head off with a starbolt! She even shot me in the back once."

"Robin, dear, you were, as friend Beast Boy would say, losing your little glass balls at the time," retorted the alien, thoroughly enjoying herself, it seemed.

"So, she can kill you _and_ you're sterile? We'll be having a special on sterile men in two weeks. You could be on it if you'd like."

The Boy wonder was now losing his otherwise infallible patience.

"She did not mean _that_ kind of glass balls! She meant I was losing my marbles at the time! And I'll have you know there is nothing wrong with my…"

"Oookay, so your girlfriend can blow your head off at any given time. Wow, at least Heero needs to actually get a gun or wrap his arms around Relena's neck to threaten her life," interrupted the host, not wanting to gross the BLEEP out of everyone by letting some kid rant about his reproductive organs.

Never let it be said that Barry Winter isn't a man of decency and principles.

Relena now decided to join the conversation.  
"Yeah, but he's never even tried, the darling. One of the first things he said to me was 'I'll kill you', but he's actually saved my life a few times. You're such a sweetheart, Heero, you know that?" Relena stated. Heero, meanwhile, was wondering why the BLEEP he hadn't made good on that promise on day one.

"So, Starfire, what do you think? Does it make any difference his life is at your whim?" Barry asked. Star had already forgotten about the dorky Control Freak. Even the other Titans had grabbed a box of popcorn and settled down for the show. Juro knew most of what would be said, but still, it would make for some very entertaining television. Besides, Control Freak was probably as riveted as they were.

"It makes no difference to me, in fact, the thought had never even occurred to me. I'd never kill my dear Robin. He makes such funny squishy sounds when we go on dates."

Robin, at the mention of the word 'date', got his lucidity back.

"Wait a second, how do you know what a date is? You've never used that word before, and I'm pretty sure Raven nor Terra would have explained that to you," he inquired.

"Robin, dearest, just because I am from another planet, does not mean I do not know how to date. I'm not BLEEPing stupid, and I also know what BLEEPing means, even though you seem reluctant to demonstrate," she cheerfully replied.

The crowd now gave off a very low and distinct 'Ooooh'. Robin was flabbergasted. Juro winced and the rest widened their eyes as far as anatomy would allow.

And on TV, anatomy can go very far.

"Oookay, I think it's time to call in our next couple. A few non-locals now, give it up for Glrdleskechhh and the former Grand Ruler of Tamaran!"

At that point, Juro suddenly remembered the files the Titans had given him about Star's arranged marriage to a blob. The other Titans noticed, quite quickly too, that Blackfire and her supposed blob husband were present at the Barry Winter show.

"Is that Star's sister?" the God of Longevity asked.

"Yep," replied Beast Boy, gulping some more popcorn, "this is television, remember? Anything's possible."

Starfire and Blackfire, meanwhile, were exchanging BLEEPs at record paces. They hadn't even said a word about the day's subject, at least everyone assumed they hadn't said such things; nobody spoke Tamaranean, which was good considering the vocabulary royalty is taught on that planet. Seeing as their people get discriminated quite frequently, they have a vast number of slurs, insults and generally bad language to retort. But that's a moral issue for another episode.

Barry decided it prudent to end the show there. Next week would involve intelligent animals and the people who fall in love with them. Strangely, Beast Boy wasn't invited.

A voice then boomed through the space;" Welcome Titans. I'm sorry I didn't join in earlier, but I just loved Robin and Starfire going on about losing little glass balls."

"Control Freak!" Robin boomed in reply," what do you think you're doing? You are under arrest!"

"Well, you may have followed me into the TV-world, but I'm calling the shots here. Let's see you keep up with me and my new lady friend."

"Huh?" was all he could muster before Blackfire pounded him in the face. It only then occurred to him that even swamp worlds like the one Blackfire's husband was from, still had a form of TV. Star and her sister began tearing up the place with starbolts.

The other Titans rushed in to help, Beast Boy taking the form of a leopard, with Cyborg close behind, while Raven and Juro covered their rear.

Control Freak jumped out of nowhere.

"Hello, Clarice," he said, in a way that violated copyrights set by Hannibal Lector. He pushed a button on what looked like a regular remote and they all fell into static.

Robin and Starfire stood on a small desert that looked like somebody had used the place for testing explosives. A large UFO stood before them, as well as a regiment of strangely clad soldiers and two figures that looked decidedly alien. One was roughly the size of an average human, and had mechanical appendages where limbs should have been, while the other was a lot larger, completely white save for a pair of horns that pointed straight up and a few purple spots where most races have sensitive spots, like the navel, kneecaps, elbows... Had Robin watched more television, he'd have realised he was facing Lord Frigo and Queen Freeze, two characters from Drake's Cube X. He'd have also realised that this was about the moment when the purple-haired Future Pants would make his first appearance, slaying both of the aliens and all of the foot soldiers. He didn't realise any of this, however, so he didn't really know just how big of a mess he was in.

Blackfire stood behind the two Titans.

"Lord Frigo," she said," these are the two dissidents I told you about. I'd very much like to see them executed."

"Men," spoke the alien with the mechanical apparatus," you heard the lady. Execute them."

Elsewhere...  
Cyborg and Beast Boy landed in a grassy field with a few rocks on it that looked rather tranquil. It was only when they heard the orders to 'Fire!' that they decided to move quickly. They heard and felt explosions. They found a rock to hide behind.

"Oh dude, this isn't happening! This isn't happening!" the green Titan fretted, now in human form.

"Did you see who was blasting at us?" the bionic giant asked.

"I don't need to! I recognise the field! This is three miles outside of Pallet Town, and we're stuck with an army retreating into Saffron!" shouted the shapeshifter in reply.

"Oh, no, don't tell me we're in…"

"I'm afraid so, Cy, this is Pocket Monsters, and behind us is an army of Team Rocket, led by psychic specialist Sabrina."

"Alakazam!" they heard a girl's voice shout, "Psychic attack!".

The two Titans jumped from behind the rock just in time to see a black-haired girl of about 15 years of age shout another command at a mime-like monster. Sabrina looked disturbingly attractive in a uniform that looked like a small white dress and had a large purple 'R' on it. The rest of her body (save the face, of course) was covered with long sleeves and panty hoses, as well as gloves and boots. For some strange reason, the uniform reminded them both of Terra. The spoons her first monster held bent themselves and a large ball of energy appeared.

The world went fuzzy before the two Titans…

Control Freak sat in a room he'd occupied after bouncing out the Great General from 'Tales of Derrik', with before him a number of stasis fields containing figures surrounded by static.

"Ah, the finest heroes from television at my mercy," the fat super-villain gloated, "how much cooler can this get?"

"In one can we have Future Pants, the purple-haired swordsman who can turn into a Super Blonde Mega Warrior. You're supposed to be fighting Lord Frigo and Queen Freeze right about now, but thankfully, your detention gives my new partner in crime enough time to have her sis and the Boyfriend Wonder killed by one of the most powerful villains TV has ever seen. You're also supposed to give another Mega Warrior a medicine to a heart-threatening virus, but that's not gonna happen either. What will happen is this; the bad guys kill the good guys, the more powerful good guy shows up too late to save them, and the bad guys from TV die to him, thereby negating any chance of them attacking me to break out. Pretty cool huh? Oh, and I hope you don't mind if I keep your nifty sword? At least, until I can get something better."

"Next up we have Ash, Gary and Olga, three of Pallet Town's finest. Right about now, you should be attacking Team Rocket's fortress in Saffron City as all of Pallet's residents are being held there, including the ole' Oak himself. As it stands, the retreating army will only need a fraction of its might to just destroy the green teen and the mechanic giant. Pity none of your little Pocket friends like me, though, I'll have to ask Team Rocket for some their badges to keep them under control. Or I could just steal some."

"And then we have you three. Well, you're all just pathetic, so I won't even bother gloating about it. The guy and gal in your show are dead, pure and simple. There's always two ways it can go wrong with you people, and I've made sure both are the case with reinforcements to boot."

Having done the routine gloating, the Control Freak turned to more pressing matters.

"Master Hagadash from Invasion X, Wise Crane from Drake's Cube X, and Mayo, the dark troll master from Clash of the Planets. I am ready to commence training and become the most powerful force in both televised AND real world.

You may begin."

Even as he spoke, the Titans were fighting for dear life. Robin found even the common foot soldiers too much for him, while Starfire and her sister were engaged in a brawl, with four more foot soldiers siding with the black-haired Princess.

Beast Boy and Cyborg were under siege. A humanoid monstrosity with two spoons was launching psychic blast upon psychic blast on them, while another, stranger looking humanoid made mime-like movements to launch solid walls and shards of seemingly thin air at them. Sonic blasts were ineffective, no animal from Earth (not even one from Tamaran) could get in a decent hit and the girl commanding these beasts was as elusive as her servants. She faded out of reality split seconds before anything hit, as if she knew what they were planning. The rest of the army had already teleported away, evidently not needing to bother with these two weaklings.

Raven stood in a closed room, with something banging on the other end of the door. With her was a nerdy-looking teen and a computer. They were both thoroughly terrified, but Raven wasn't worried about what was waiting for them. She had other worries.  
When they had been zapped away, she'd heard Juro's voice. He should have been there with her, but he wasn't.

She'd lost him.

Meanwhile, Control Freak's training progressed. He'd ripped off a few floating screens from 'Dudes with Shades' that displayed the situations for all the Titans.

And he had good cause to be laughing.

To be continued…

Next time on 'God of Luck':

Robin and Starfire are fighting a pitched battle, how can they possibly win when they are outnumbered and outclassed? Will the resident heroes of Drake's Cube X arrive in time to save the day or will they all fall to the unstoppable might of Lord Frigo?

Beast Boy and Cyborg are taken captive by the psychic mistress Sabrina, and Team Rocket moves its plans into the final stage. But what's this?  
Has Sabrina developed a crush for the green Titan? Will she reduce him to a mere thrall or does she actually care for the young hero? And more importantly, will Beast Boy return her affections? What could possibly become of such a coupling? And in the realm of television, could Beast Boy turn into a Pokémon? Cyborg is caught in the middle as Team Rocket's weapons designers try to get the secret of bionic control out of him. Will he survive the process?

And what of the two mages? Who dares threaten Raven and who is this kid with her?

And can Juro prevail in an unknown world, with unknown rules and unknown adversaries? Threats come from where he least suspects it, and Control Freak has something very special in mind for him.  
' "The girl is our hostage," spoke the leader of the disguised troop," you will duel us now."

"Then choose your weapon, villain," replied Juro. '

Will Control Freak be overcome? Can righteousness prevail when television and real life mix?

Find out next time on Tales of Chaos: God of Luck

Disclaimer 2: The 'Code Tokyo' bit is a parody on 'Code Lyoko', and A.N.A.L just seemed like at a good idea at the time of writing, that one's obviously based on X.A.N.A. . I own none of the above.

Barry Winter is based on Jerry Springer, whom I don't own. Heero and Relena are two characters from Gundam Wing, which I sadly don't own either, Hannibal Lector is also not mine, even though I think the movies he's in rock and Drake's Cube X is what Dragonball Z might look like if the Titans had it on their screens, neither of which I own. Future Pants, obviously, is based on Mirai Trunks, who is not mine to command, Frigo is based on Lord Freeza and Queen Freeze is the one you'd recognise as King Cold. I don't own those two either.

The Pocket Monster segment is actually based on the comic books, hence Sabrina's membership of Team Rocket and my reluctance to simply call the show Pokémon. I think it sounds cooler if you mention the word 'monsters'. The manga is, sadly, not easy to find and I only have two issues, so I will digress from the storyline. Anyway, if you wish to know, Sabrina's a member of Team Rocket, as are Lt. Surge and Koga, but all three look a bit younger than in the show, oddly. Giovanni is obviously there as well, as the strongest trainer in Team Rocket, but him and the other three are still Gym Leaders, which is a pretty important detail in the story. The violence rate is substantially higher, violence against the trainers is the rule rather than the exception, and the monsters can actually suffer grave injuries, even die. The teams the characters use are also quite different from those in the show (Ash, for instance, got his first three monsters in this order: wild Poliwag, Bulbasaur from Oak, wild Pikachu), and there are actual weapons being used. Needles to say, you've got actual villains here instead of clumsy fools. Now Team Rocket has plundered Pallet Town because the residents have the ability to communicate with Pokémon, read their emotions. They also kidnapped Oak to help him with their new project (this is after Mewtwo has entered the picture, and this one's quite a doozy, trust me). But obviously Control Freak now has all three Pallet trainers (the third one never makes an appearance in the show, sadly) as prisoners, so they can't do a bloody thing about it. One more note on this segment: At this point in the series, Sabrina had a Kadabra, not an Alakazam, but hey, two spoons are better than one. There, now you can follow that, too.

Whew, that was a long one. Anyways, I own none of the above.

'Dudes with Shades' came from 'Men In Black', it was the only show I could think of with floating screens and 'Tales of Derrik' came from 'Chronicles of Riddick', the 'Great General' obviously being a derivative of the Grand Marshall. Hagadash is actually from TT itself, Wise Crane is based on Tenshinhan's teacher in DBZ (I'm not sure what the English name is, though) and Mayo is what Yoda would be if he were a Dark Lord of the Sith.

Again, I own none of above.

And for those of you who didn't realise it: the whole preview of the next episode is derived from Dragonball Z also, which I don't own, in case you'd forgotten.

Now, if you want to let me know what you liked and disliked about this particular chapter, please review and do so, because the events in the next two chaps may be heavily influenced by your input. The main components are ready, but details can be adjusted.


	10. Reality Checks and TV Bills 2

Disclaimer: I make no claim to having any sanity whatsoever and all of the things you are about to read are derived from other TV-shows that I don't own. I also don't own Teen Titans or the idea of Chaos mages, that actually existed at some point.  
Also note that I'll be focusing on what happens after the fights from chap one are over, rather than detailing the fights first. The alternative would have left little room for part 3.   
Chapter 10:Reality checks and TV-bills (part 2)  
They were lost.

Robin had been pounded into the ground, Starfire had been shot out of the sky under the watchful eye of her sister, and both were now being held down by these super-powered foot soldiers. Blackfire decided to taunt them both, seeing as they were clearly overpowered.  
"Oh sister, how the mighty has fallen. Does it hurt to know that I beat you? Do you feel the same pain and humiliation you gave me when you handed me over to that blob?"

Star was struggling to stay conscious. She'd taken several blows to the head, as well a laser blast to the shoulder, and she was certain that if she fainted, she would not wake up again. Better to try and reason with her sister than anger her more.  
"I did it to preserve our home. You would have brought ruin to our planet in your misguided anger. I did it for Tamaran."

"Don't tell me it was in the best interest of our planet for me to be condemned to life on a swamp world! You know full well that our kind cannot thrive in hot humid environments! You sent me along with that thing in the hopes that I would die from one of the mould infections that you can get there, and don't you deny it! You wanted me out of the way, dead by some vulgar disease so you wouldn't have to live with killing your sister yourself," one could tell this was years of emotional repression coming out. Lord Frigo didn't mind the long delay in execution. The show they were in was known for long dialogues preceding character death.

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
Even as the black-haired former Grand Ruler went on, Beast Boy and Cyborg were knocked out cold by another black-haired girl.  
"Sabrina to HQ, Sabrina to HQ, do you read me, HQ?" she communicated with the headquarters in Saffron. This was, by the way, one of few shows where cell-phones were used so diligently.  
"Loud and clear, Sabrina. Are the two subjects out?" came the reply.

"They are out cold, but no permanent damage has been done. I think they may prove useful when preserved," she dared. In truth, she just wanted the green-skinned one to live. It would be handy to have a pet like him around. And he did have cute pointy ears, though she'd never admit thinking that.

"Very well, bring them here and get the shield up. It's not because our strongest enemies are incapacitated that we should let our guard down. I trust you did not stress your Mr. Mime too much?"

"No sir, he'll be fit enough to raise the shield," she replied. That's one of the things she liked about Team Rocket; nobody cared what you did or how you did it, as long as you got results. She took both of the unconscious teens to Saffron in her usual teleportation fashion.

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
Juro found himself in a forest of sorts, surrounded by what looked like giant bowling balls and a handful of robed men. The one right in front of him held a red-haired girl. His elbow was wrapped around her neck and his hand showed he was wearing a gauntlet that ended in claws. He threatened a bit, burying the claws in her flesh for a few inches.  
"The girl is our hostage," spoke the leader of the disguised troop," you will duel us now."

"Then choose your weapon, villain," replied Juro.

When he did, Juro sighed inwardly. He knew who these guys were, he knew where he was, and he had to restrain himself from laughing aloud.  
Of all villains, Control Freak just had to send these guys.  
What an idiot.

Raven, meanwhile, got a good look at what was pounding at the door. It looked like a four-legged crab, only with a laser gun instead of claws. She got ready to defend herself when suddenly the silly thing fell down.  
The nerdy kid with her looked at his screens.  
"Huh? Aelita? You made it!"

The red-head showed on screen now.  
"I had help from a stranger. Who's that with you?"  
Only now did he seem to notice Raven.  
"Long story," she interrupted, "the one who helped you is a friend of mine. Can you get him out?"  
What followed was long explanation about materialisation programs, having to re-write the whole code, not being able to find his friends…  
"Simple answer: yes or no?" she snapped.  
"Don't bother, I'm here already," came Juro's voice behind them," used a little present from my foes. The bigger problem is what to do now."  
They were both struck by a wave of nausea after he said that.  
"What was that?" Juro asked.  
"I think somebody's dying. Somebody close to us…one of the Titans is dying, Juro. How do we get out of this?"

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
Starfire couldn't last much longer. The blows she'd suffered must have caused some serious internal bleeding. She hadn't lost that much blood from the shoulder wound, though. Robin stood powerless, literally. He was barely aware of the fact that some blond guy showed up to challenge Frigo. It didn't matter; both parties ignored him. How could it have come to this? They were going to die, and Robin had never said he loved Star. It was for her own good, he kept telling himself; she could not have a future with him. Not the one she deserved. He struggled in the grasp of an anonymous foot soldier, which only drew Blackfire's attention to him.  
"Oh yes, Robin the Boy Wonder. You could still make it out of here alive, you know, just say what I want to hear and I'll let you go. Tell me you don't love my sister, that's all I ask."  
Robin's whole world caved in before him as Star was bleeding inside.

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
Sabrina was talking to the big boss again, again on the phone.  
"Yes, the mechanical one could help solve the Mewtwo problem. The technology involved would be a big help."  
"And I take it you want to keep the green one?" the boss queried.  
"Venomoth is sedating him even as we speak. It shouldn't be too much trouble to keep him in check."  
"But do you lay claim to him as your own?" Giovanni persisted.  
"Yes, I do. If I keep him close enough at all times, I'll be able to keep his thoughts in check. And he'd be of more use to us if we have more control," she referred, again, to the disastrous Mewtwo project, the consequences of which were still running rampant somewhere in Kanto.  
"Very well, then, you can keep him," Giovanni finally conceded.  
After that, the Venomoth hovering over the elf-like shapeshifter stopped showering him in toxic powders. He was drugged enough for Sabrina to enter his mind without any resistance. She probed for things she could use, and finally decided on what she'd do.  
Beast Boy woke up feeling heavy, his eyes blurred. He could barely make out who was with him in the room. He tried to speak, but he couldn't raise his voice above a whisper.

"Terra…?"

"Shh, you took a heavy blow. I almost thought I'd lost you there, BB."  
For a moment, he struggled to think. What had happened? He'd been in a fight, he knew that much. He'd fought alongside Terra, that he knew for sure. Who had he been fighting? Oh yeah, that big black dragon thingy...Malchi-something or other. Good thing Terra was so powerful. Between the two of them, there was nothing they couldn't do.  
It's not like they needed any team-mates, right?  
Beast Boy felt a bit queasy, and it felt like that didn't come from a blow to the head. Something was off, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. Terra told him to lay still, she'd get him something to eat to get his strength back. She gave him a little kiss on the forehead and he dozed right off.  
Somewhere in the bowels of the Sylph Tower in Saffron City, the headquarters of Team Rocket, Cyborg lay, deactivated, capable only of dreaming as his circuitry was being torn apart one piece at a time.

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
"Okay, Jerry, hit the code now and we'll get your friends back," Juro commanded.

"Would you mind explaining just what we're going to do again?" the Azarathian girl asked.

"Okay, Jerry here is going to hit the code that allows time travel. This IS Code Tokyo, after all, and he can create a warp to throw us through time. With a bit of luck, we'll be able to stop Control Freak from nabbing Jerry's friends and save ours. And to hop from one channel to the next, I nabbed these little gadgets from the troops he sent into the VR world. Any questions?"

Raven did think of one funny retort, but it would've been out of place and too cruel, even by her standards. She just took the remote Juro offered her.

"Okay, return to the past," Jerry's catchphrase sounded.

A large white wave came from the computer in the centre of the room, it enveloped everything and the next thing the two of them knew, they were standing in a hall with a few floating screens and several containers made up of static. There was a note on one of them.

"Dear Titans,  
I sure hope you didn't think I couldn't see what you were doing. Especially the new kid. I dare you to pull that dirty trick again!"

"What trick is he referring to?" Raven asked.  
Just then the same robed men Juro had faced in the VR world came back. They appeared out of a shadowy wall and spoke with the same menacing voices.  
"You duel with us now," their leader stated.

"I'll deal with these guys, could you please get the TV heroes out of their cells, Raven?"  
She complied as Juro demonstrated the little trick he'd used before.

"Ah," she said," that explains it."

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
Robin and Starfire had just landed in the desert. It took about five seconds for them to realise they were outnumbered and outclassed, and they both knew that they'd be going down in a very short time.

That's when Future Pants showed up.

In a blur, the blue-haired hero sliced to pieces all of the foot soldiers that would have mortally wounded Starfire, and then proceeded to tear up Lord Frigo and Queen Freeze.

Once again, Drake's Cube X was completely in line with the script.  
Except of course for the Titans and Blackfire, but that little argument was settled quickly with a black ball of energy. Raven had entered the picture.

When the dust had settled and Juro came back from his little romp with those pathetic robed villains, Robin tried to get the facts straight.

"Okay, so we're stuck inside this show, but you've managed to steal the remotes from Control Freaks' reinforcements, so we can move to other channels, right?"

"Right," the mortal God of Luck replied.

"And where are Beast Boy and Cyborg?"

"We couldn't trace Control Freak's signal," Raven now interjected," we're guessing we jumped him before he could kidnap the heroes of whatever show they're dropped in. And we're almost at the time before the warp, so wherever they are, they're in the same situation as before, only the heroes are now there."

"But then why hasn't Control Freak sent anything else after us?" the Boy Wonder pondered aloud.

"He's using the Balmarkian gambit," Starfire suggested," he's using a diversion tactic while he builds up his strength. Then, as the enemy is forced to engage, the trap springs. It's one of the most common strategies on our planet."

"That explains a lot. Control Freak's not smart enough to come up with a strategy like that, but your sister must have given him a few pointers," Robin replied. Said sister was still unconscious after having the magical equivalent of an anvil dropped on her head. In the background there were a few discussions arising between the Super Blonde Mega Warriors, something about being of royal blood and a heart disease, but that's beside the point.

"Which still leaves us with the question: where are our friends?" Star asked.

"Well, Juro, any thoughts? You know TV almost as well as BB does," Robin asked, though it should be noted he still had a hint of distrust in his voice. The whole telepathy thing had shaken himup more than he let on.

"Okay, let me think, Raven and I were dropped in Code: Tokyo at the beginning of the last episode of season 1, and you were dropped in Drake's Cube X at the beginning of the first battle with Future Pants. Control Freak dropped all of us in a show and episode where the heroes were in mortal danger, and he did it after he removed the residential heroes, except for the show that has BB and Cy in it. But the only show that would have an episode like that is..."

At that point, his face turned white, which didn't inspire too much hope in the hearts of his fellow Titans.  
"We've got to go, quick. I know where they are and they're in serious trouble right about now."

"Well, where are they?" Robin now demanded.

"They're in Pocket Monsters, and today's the episode where Team Rocket completes its ultimate project."

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
Sabrina had considered the possibility that the fat guy wouldn't be able to detain the three Pallet Town Trainers. It didn't matter, though; she had the green teen drugged and brainwashed, his memories blocked, and the entire city was covered in an impenetrable shield, courtesy of Mr. Mime. And the part robot teen was stashed away somewhere in the basement, completely dismantled, naturally. Then, of course, there was the project Team Rocket had been working on. It actually depended, in part, on the Trainers of Pallet Town. They'd stolen Ash Ketchum's Eevee, whose genetic code was being turned inside out even at that very moment. And after they were through with that, they'd get the technology from that cyborg thing and hopefully be able to make some strong, new weapons capable of controlling Mewtwo. As if their current project didn't give them enough firepower already. She took out one of her Pokéballs and thought about the power there was inside. It was almost as enormous as the power it took to control it, but there it was, right in the palm of her hand. She'd be one of the most powerful Trainers of all time, maybe even a worthy successor to Giovanni.

And all the while, she'd be having some fun with her new pet/boyfriend.

It's not easy to get a guy when you're a feared general in a criminal organisation and have the power to lift a car with your mind.

Men get intimidated by that sort of thing.

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
The other Titans landed in a grassy field just outside of Saffron. Their path was blocked by large, transparent shield.

"Don't bother trying to break it, guys, if memory serves, it'll go down in just a few seconds," the supposed expert at the matter stated.

And indeed, it did. Robin let Juro be their guide through this televised action-fest. He was out of his element and he knew it. They dodged Rocket members, ducking through the city's alleys until they came to the Sylph Tower.  
"Okay, Ash, Gary and Olga should be inside right about now," at that, they entered as well, but they stopped before the end of the staircase when they reached the fifth floor. They saw one kid fall through a trapdoor, as another squared off with what looked like a ninja with a bat on right arm and a snake coiled around his right.  
"Okay, now Koga and Gary are going to go at it, while Ash takes down Surge. We'd better wait until it's over," Juro whispered.

"Is this show really that dangerous? I thought this was a kid's show?"  
Even as Raven said it, Gary sent out his Scyther, which was basically a huge mantis with blades for arms. It drove one of the blades through Koga's shoulder.

"Never mind," the goth said.  
It didn't do a lot of damage, as it turned out Koga had a living mass of purple slime on his shoulder blades. It was a Muk, that stopped the bug's attack and then proceeded to restrain it. A second Muk sprang out from behind Gary to restrain him, more specifically to stop him from using his Pokéballs. The Titans were a bit surprised at how fighting was done in this show, and suddenly realised why Control Freak hadn't bothered kidnapping the three heroes from here. And while they were on the subject...

"Friend Juro, you said there were three heroes here. Where is the third, then?" the princess of Tamaran asked.

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
Sabrina had just finished feeding her newest asset. It was so easy to make him think she was this Terra. She'd erase his memories completely when she had the time for it. Right now, though, she had to deal with an intruder. Somehow, they'd managed to strike down her Mr. Mime from a ridiculously large distance. It wasn't that important, though: she still had all the aces. Team Rocket was not easily defeated in its own HQ. All she had to now was open a door with a little telekinesis, and this wench Olga would fall to her.

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
The Titans laid low as Koga used his Golbat's razor-sharp wings to give Gary a paralysing blow. He went for the kill just when the other kid, Ash, came running in. He sent out some blue mass of muscle with a hypnotic disk on its chest, but it was no good. Koga gave the Poliwrath a slap with the wing and it bounced straight into its master. The tide of battle shifted as he tried to kill Gary again, only to meet with one very large bird that buried its beak in his stomach. If he hadn't been wearing his armour, the Pidgeot would have killed him. As it was, he had the wind knocked out of him. He'd ignored the little reflector Gary been wearing, that had softened the first blow.

"How much longer are they going to be bouncing around each other like that?" Raven asked.  
Just then, Koga unleashed his trump: Articuno, a giant blue bird with the power over ice. The Trainers shouted a few things as they dodged balls of ice and icy winds, but eventually they got caught and frozen like statues.

"Okay, in a few seconds, the fighting will stop. My guess is, our friends are either on the basement level with the Pallet Town residents, which is where Gary'll be headed, or they're a few stories up where they're keeping the energy amplifier. That's where Ash will be going."

"And I thought Beast Boy watched too much TV," Raven couldn't help letting out that little jibe. Juro chuckled a bit at that.

"Okay, I'll follow Gary with Juro, Raven, you and Star head up, and make sure nobody sees you. It looks like these Pocket Monsters might be too much for us in numbers," the leader stated.

As if to prove the point, the fire dragon Gary had let out a few seconds earlier now set the whole room alight, defrosting both Pallet Trainers. They took out the evil Gym Leader with a rather painful-looking combined attack.  
And, just as the God of Longevity had said, Ash headed up and Gary headed to the basement, hoping to find his grandfather. The Titans followed suit.

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
Sabrina was fuming. That little brat of an Olga had tricked her and escaped. She'd dared her to attack and Sabrina had fallen right for it. Her Alakazam had given Olga a fell spoonblow to the chest and fallen right for the trap.

It's not like it was something she could have seen coming. A lot of people used Monsters that could attack with sound, and the fact that she'd been deafened for a few minutes didn't upset her nearly as much as the fact that she'd been outwitted.

How was she supposed to know Olga hid her Pokéballs in her bra? Of all places?

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
Beast Boy was still sound asleep. He dreamed of his girl, as he had done for as long as he cared to remember. Two voices woke him up from his slumber.

"Anyone in sight, Star?" a slightly monotonous voice asked.

"The black-haired boy just entered the main room, and the girl just sent away some guards. She's going in. There doesn't seem to be anyone heading here," the other voice replied.

"Good," came the monotonous one again, this time closer," Beast Boy, can you hear me? It's Raven. Come on, you green elf, wake up."

Beast Boy mumbled a bit, something Raven couldn't make out, and she smelled something on him with a decidedly intoxicating odour.

"Oh, great, he's been drugged, Star, help me for sec, will you?"  
They lifted him up and checked outside to see if the coast was clear. They only saw the same black-haired girl that had entered already enter again, this time a lot angrier and accompanied by a creature with two spoons in hand. They didn't bother trying to make sense of it and instead hovered their friend towards the nearest sprinkler system to wash the powder off.

"Hold him still, Star, I'm going to see if his mind's been tampered with."

The princess held him still as they hovered in mid-air, and the green teen struggled for a short time, his mouth open but no sound coming out. When it was over, it was like nothing had ever happened.

"Rae? Star? What am I doing here?" he started. They set him back down on the ground. They didn't notice Olga running away with the huge tablet that was Team Rocket's energy amplifier. What they did hear was the appearance of three legendary bird Pokémon, namely the Zapdos Lt. Surge had abused, the Articuno that Koga had commanded, and Sabrina's own Moltres.

"Tell me that's not what I think it is," Beast Boy asked, frightened of something.

"What is it, friend Beast Boy?" Starfire dared.  
A big white ball of light appeared from behind a corner on the other end of the corridor they were in, and flew into the room that held Ash, Sabrina and the three big birds.  
"We've got to go, coz' things are about to get ugly. Real ugly."

TTTTTTTTTTTTT  
"I really am sorry for punching you, you know," Robin said as they ran down the stairs. Gary had already found professor Oak, but the two Titans went deeper, even under the floor where Pallet Town's citizens were being kept.

"That's okay, I'd have done the same thing in your shoes, probably," came the reply.

They stopped behind a corner; Juro sensed something.

"Two guards. We can take them if we're quick enough. Their Pokémon aren't out yet, so if we disable them before they can reach for their Pokéballs…"

Robin finally decided how to handle this kid. He knew too much about too many things to ignore his advice, but he wouldn't let him take the role of leader. Robin would still call the shots, but at least Juro would provide more options. He finally felt he could trust his new team mate and more importantly, himself around him.

They rushed the guards and took them down with a synchronised punch in the face. Cyborg lay beyond the door, deactivated and in pieces. There was no equipment the Rockets might have examined him with, and no scientists around, not even a decent table to put him on. He just lay there, on the ground.

They obviously hadn't prepared for him, which was a good thing. Robin switched his mechanical friend back on. He got a good look at himself and groaned.

"Oh man, all of my circuitry is scattered. It's gonna take weeks before I get in one piece again. Damn girl…"

No arguments there. His chest and head looked fine enough, but all the rest had been taken apart.

"I think I can help, Cy," Juro tried," just open your mind, focus on your build, and I'll reassemble you."

Cyborg looked at Robin for one second, remembering the tensions that had been building, then saw trust in his eyes. They both nodded. Cyborg closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was as good as new.

Right on time, too, because from the sound of it, the villagers from Pallet Town were being freed, and Juro knew that was their cue to get out fast.  
"Okay, the three legendary birds have now fused into one mean beast. I suggest we let the Pallet Trainers do their thing and get out sharpish."

After a rather uneventful trip to the exit, the Titans all snuck out the Sylph Tower, which was now burning and almost collapsing in on itself. Then there was the small matter of the network of vines that was suspended about twenty stories up, but none of that was important. What was important was that everybody was safe, and ready to kick Control Freak's undoubtedly powerful butt right out of the television world.

Speaking of which…

Control Freak stood in Baron Ryang's quarters, whom he had given the proverbial boot a few hours before. Things had gone according to schedule, mostly. He hadn't counted on that blue-dressed kid's skills, but his victory couldn't last. If not for him, the others would have gone down against the cunning strategy he had employed. He went over his list again.

"Cool kung fu moves? Check."  
"Space samurai super powers? Check."  
"Super-cool double lightsaber? Check."  
"Drake's Cube X Crane Finger Blast tech? Check and double check."

"Well, I guess now all I have to do is send the invitation and wait for the fireworks to start," the fat guy chuckled.

The Titans were not at all surprised when Cyborg announced that Control Freak had altered the TV-waves to brainwash people.

They also weren't surprised when a little note came flying by with the message:

"I'm in Baron Ryang's space fortress. Come and get me if you dare."

The Titans, needless to say, were more than obliged to do just that.

Before they left, though, Beast Boy took one look at the Sylph building, and saw a girl standing there.

Their eyes met.

They both wondered about a lot of things.

Then he decided to go.

* * *

No previews this time, you'll just have to wait and see. Some people may wonder why I gave Sabrina that much attention here, but trust me, it makes the next chapter better. Same with the battle scenes.  
And I do apologise for the long delay; exams take a lot more time in college than one may suspect at first. Anyway, part three should take less time to write, Love and Darkness will also continue shortly but Destiny Defied will be deleted. My loathing of YGO, not to mention the effort it would take to get the fights in order, it just wouldn't be worth it. So consider it gone.

As always, your reviews are welcome.


	11. Reality Checks and TV Bills 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, or any of the shows I am parodying here, and I think this time they'll be a lot more obvious. Also, I'd like to point out that I will not reveal just what the big problem is between Robin and Starfire, but it is an issue I will address in a later fanfic.  
Thanks again to all my readers and reviewers, hope you enjoy the final part of Reality Checks and TV-Bills.

* * *

**Reality Checks and TV-Bills, part 3**

The Titans arrived with the Century Hawk that would have brought young Duke Airrunner to the Space Fortress, but he and Baron Ryang had been kicked out a while before. Nobody was sure of what to expect. Beast Boy tried to keep his head together, but it was obvious being out for so long had had some effect on his clarity of mind. They all had a big headache, though. They'd been inside the TV for too long and they just wanted to beat Control Freak up a bit and go home.

When the space ship landed in the central port area, there were no guards to stop them. Beast Boy simply informed his friends that there wouldn't have been any point, as most of the guards would be stationed in the corridors of the place, a strategically stronger position.

Never let it be said Clash of the Planets is not a realistic series.

The Titans ran or flew as fast as they could, freezing Troopers with disks, squashing them under the weight of a hippo, or simply shutting the right door before they came within shooting range.

Beast Boy alerted them that they were very close to the headquarters now, and they all knew this was going to be a war of attrition. Just before they passed the last corner, a whole squad of robed men came from the other side. These were, once again, the same guys Juro had faced twice now, and still they wanted him to duel. Robin decided to let him duel twenty guys at once while the rest of the team took down the fat TV-maniac. He knew his way around this place anyway.

But when he saw the squad of men and Juro get enveloped by a black void, he did start to wonder.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTT  
Juro stood in the void.

"Twenty this time, eh? Do you even realise who you're dealing with?" he tried to talk them out of duelling him, as the others he had faced had not fared too well.

"An amateur compared to us. Now, strike!" the leader commanded.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

The other Titans, meanwhile, were learning firsthand why Clash of the Planets never did away with its villains. Robin tried to block a two-bladed lightsaber, courtesy of Baron Ryang, only to see it slice his bo staff clean in half. Control Freak couldn't go for the kill, though, as the room suddenly filled with green starbolts, which he dodged with remarkable agility for someone as lard as him. Starfire was then put on the defensive as the fat villain launched his own energy blasts, these from his finger.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were digging their way out of the rubble they had been buried in during the initial attack, the one that had happened off-camera. Raven, meanwhile, gave Star some room to breathe as she put up a dark shield, which let the princess go right back on the offensive. Control Freak didn't even bother laughing at them during the fight, possibly because Blackfire had shared her bad experiences on the matter with him. He was going too fast, his blows were too strong, and the Titans were getting too tired.

Unless they tried something drastic, they would lose.

As if through a telepathic command, the Titans closed in on the superpowered fellow. The girls managed to get him to back up near a wall, which naturally meant Control Freak launched himself from it, diving straight for their heads, sabers reared to strike, and all the while shouting some nonsensical battle cry Beast Boy would have recognised as being Klingon.  
That's when Cyborg and Robin launched that golden oldie, the Sonic Boom. The prior sent out a sonic blast that amplified the explosive the latter had thrown. It sent the televised maniac sprawling back against the wall. For a split second, they thought they'd won, but then he just shrugged off the dust and laughed.

"Hah! You think you can defeat me? I am Count Rol Freak! I am a level twelve space samurai! And you are getting tired, Titans. Your disks are running out, your spells are getting weaker and you cannot win against a space samurai!"

Right then and there, an orchestra sounded. It produced a music that came from nowhere, and Beast Boy recognised what it was.

"I haven't heard that since…"

(Author's note: right about now, you should be thinking of Star Wars: the Phantom Menace, the scene where Darth Maul enters the final fight with the two Jedi. Same music.)

A door opened, revealing a dark blue-skinned warrior in black uniform.

"I am Darth Slash, first apprentice to Darth Nister, who was destroyed by Baron Ryang. There can be only one evil space samurai in this world, and you are now carrying the title. Therefore you must be destroyed."

The self-proclaimed Count wasn't listening, though; he was too busy trying his remote on this anomaly. He looked annoyed more than anything else as it didn't work.

Of course, he got really peeved when Darth Slash actually started fighting. It was quite a sight, too, to see one space samurai who was actually the world's second most powerful fanboy fight the space samurai who was known as the most powerful fighter in his own universe.

"Guys, this isn't normal," BB stated.  
"Define normal," came the reply from a certain goth.  
"This guy went out of the series in Season Zero, the prequel season. He was banished to the null dimensions by the Hop Joon Kang chant, just like the bad guy from season 4, which only got aired months earlier."

"So you're saying there's a chant that can banish evil space samurai to these null dimensions," Raven calmly queried," and you haven't used it on this particular space samurai because…"

In true television fashion, a lightbulb appeared above BB's head. While Control Freak was busy dealing with the out of plot Darth Slash, Beast Boy struck a pose and chanted: "Hop Joon Kang, Hop Joon Kang."

They were most relieved when Control Freak folded in on himself and turned 2-D.

Their relief didn't last, however, as Darth Slash was still standing in full 3-D.  
"The Hop Joon Kang Chant. Now why didn't I think of that?" he said as his costume melted away to reveal that familiar blue and grey costume. Juro had played a little trick on the Freak. Good thing he wasn't a real space samurai, but just had their powers.

"No! How could you have defeated my minions? I was prepared for you!" Control Freak shouted.

"Dude, you were not prepared for me. You sent the villains of Me-Go-Ah after me. You hoped to defeat me with a bunch of card gamers. Do you have any idea of how absurd that is? Oh, and thanks for Century Items, by the way. Makes disguises so much easier."  
"Well, I guess that's a wrap," Robin now interrupted. "Cyborg, could you please get us out of this madhouse?"  
"Gladly."

Later, in the T-Tower, things looked like they were back to normal. Juro agreed to switch his extra-sensory powers off while in the Tower, if only to stop picking up on other people's secrets.

Cyborg let the whole issue between Robin and Star rest. He didn't need to know Robin's soft spot.

Raven was still thinking of whether or not Juro could be her life mate. More importantly, what would happen to her powers and his should they ever unite.

Juro, meanwhile, was wondering the same thing and how his little project would affect life in the Tower. And then, of course, there were still one or two proverbial skeletons in his closet that could throw everything off balance. He'd just have to deal with it as it came.

Starfire and Robin seemed content with how things were between them, though the alien princess secretly hoped for more.

And Beast Boy? Beast Boy took to long walks around the Tower, needing the fresh air after being in TV-land for too long. He still watched the tube, though, especially when Pocket Monsters was on. Raven joined him during one of the re-runs.

"She never deleted your memory, did she? You were aware of what was happening and you still know what she made you see. It was Terra, wasn't it? She made you think she was Terra."

He just let his head hang a bit.  
"Don't tell the others, will ya? It's kinda embarrassing."

"Sure. And it's not that embarrassing to like a TV-character," the Azarathian quietly said.

"You think?" the green teen asked shyly.

"Think of it this way: if we were TV-characters, how many people would like us?"

She said it in her usual dark tone, with a hint of deep contemplation for the effect, but Beast Boy couldn't help but laugh at it.  
"I guess I'll get over it some day. I can't help but think we forgot something, though."

Somewhere in the realm of television, the Super Blonde Mega Warriors were arguing over who got the last piece of meat. Blackfire was still seething.  
"Mark my words: One day I shall have my revenge!" she shouted.

"Hey, that's my line," King Vegetable replied, before gulfing down a whole steak.

* * *

Author's notes: Phew, that was tiring. This was written in one go spanning about two hours, so I hope you liked it. I know it's probably way too short compared to parts 1 and 2, but this is how it turned out. 


	12. Cleaning the closet

Disclaimer: Yet again, I don't own Teen Titans and I've never even seen a single episode in English, so don't kill me for deviating a little bit.  
Author's notes: I know a lot of you will be concerned at the fact that Juro is too much of a Gary Stu. He's just overpowered compared to the other Titans, but believe it or not, there's a reason for that. A reason that has been added to the plot and one I intend to include when I re-write the prequel for this story. I've read Tales of Chaos: The Beginning again, and I feel now that I can do better. I can give him more depth, make him more identifiable and most importantly, I can make that a true Magic: the Gathering fanfic, which I should have done with it in the first place, rather than muck it all up with lame jokes and fictional theories. This will, however, change nothing for the Teen Titans fic, so don't worry about that. Anyways, time for the Raven/Juro romance to finally move up. Well, eventually.

* * *

**Chapter 12: Cleaning the closet  
**Raven and Juro were meditating together, as they always did on the rooftop. The sun was about to go up, and they were both deep in a trance, oblivious to everything around them, even each other. 

That's when something went wrong. Raven felt a sudden surge of power coming from her fellow mage, and it snapped her to consciousness. Juro was shaking, which was not a common sight. He just looked her in the eye, and went down to get breakfast and work things out. Raven couldn't make sense of it. What had happened just now? It was almost as if the entire city, maybe even the whole planet, had been hit by some ethereal lightning. And for some reason, Juro was the centre of it. No, not him, she corrected herself, the Tower was still unaffected. What had caused it, though?

She went down some time after, and she was thinking really hard when she noticed the little piece of paper on the ground. It was really tiny, stuck in some crack between the wall and the floor, probably from one of the fights they'd had in the Tower, or from some of the boys' roughhousing. She saw a symbol on the paper, but she couldn't quite tell what it was.

It was disturbing for her, to find a symbol that she didn't recognise, considering all the tutelage she'd had in the matter. It didn't fit with any of the magickal orders she knew, it wasn't menacing enough to be the symbol of a demon, yet it pulsed with an arcane power. The same kind of power that had shaken up her friend just now.

It didn't make any sense: she knew Juro altered the future and things like that using symbols, but if that was the case, why didn't she recognise this one? There were plenty of orders that claimed to do what he did, but none of them used anything like this.

Then it hit her. Well, to say that it hit her would be a bit of an understatement. To claim that her world fell apart right then and there would also be understating it a bit. Let's just say that when she ran to the main room, she ran with the zeal of someone trying to escape a burning building.

She came in, panting. She saw him sitting at the table, not noticing her. Probably still getting used to life without a psychic radar.  
"How many more secrets do you have that we should know about, Will?" she asked, referring to his real name for effect. She slapped the little piece of paper on the table for all to see. Of course, nobody but the two of them knew what was happening.

For a few seconds, the only sounds in the room were from Juro drinking tea and Silkie making his way to his feeding trough.

"Just a few now, Raven, just a few. Though I wish you hadn't figured this one out so soon."

"Care to explain what this is about, Raven?" the Boy Wonder joined the conversation.

"I found this sigil in one of the corridors. It's activated and pulsing with power. Just now a shockwave went through everything except the Tower. And Will's been lying to us. There's no such thing as a chance mage, is there? You're one of the Followers of The Beast. You're with the Order of Agromet, aren't you?" she nearly went into an outrage there. Juro, on the other hand, remained calm.

"I follow The Beast only in techniques, but you should know by now that I call upon different pantheons. I'm really sorry for not telling you guys, but I had my reasons. Being on this team brought a little meaning to my existence, and I didn't tell you because I knew this very argument would break out the second I did!" now Juro was outraged.

"Please friends, what is this Beast you speak of? I can't follow," Starfire tried to calm the whole thing down. Silkie already started crying at the noise, which was not a pretty sight considering his mouth full of fodder.

"Neither can I," the fearless leader said," care to explain the big problem?"

"Do you want to do it, or shall I, Raven?" the now revealed to be follower of The Beast asked. She glared in return, then tried to think about the feelings she had for him. It just seemed to get more impossible every minute, but she let him explain anyway. She trusted him enough to give a realistic account of the facts.

"For as long as there have been mages, there has been an ongoing feud between the two main classes, for comfort's sake we'll call them witches and magicians. Witches mostly used whatever they could find and rarely innovated in their craft. Magicians began using tools and experimented all the time, sometimes with disastrous results, other times with great success. It started like this at the beginning of human history. Both had good and evil practitioners, but when the two factions came into contact, conflict ensued regardless of affiliation.  
Now, in the Medieval period things heated up, as most of the successful magicians were wealthy clergymen, they had to be to have access to the necessary resources. Witches, on the other hand, were mostly illiterate countryfolk. Witches didn't like magicians because they were outside their system and control and magicians didn't like witches because they felt magick was their domain and witches were only amateurs. So one group started burning members of the other under the guise of Christianity. This is basic history. Stop me if I'm wrong, Raven," he suddenly added. Raven herself, though, had to silently admit that all this was true.

"Fast forward to the sixties now. A British woman was included into a nature cult based on a few laughable conceptions of deities and the people they served…"

"Okay, stop right there, Will," Raven interrupted," you don't know that for certain."

"So you're claiming that a minorly worshipped deity from Greek mythology is the exact same patron deity of the British forests? I've communed with a few spirits who begged to differ. And they know those deities personally. They also commented on the discrimination of men that was so popular among the cults in question."

That left the rest of the Titans scratching their heads in frustration, among other things. Juro continued.

"In any event, this woman achieved a high rank in the cult, and wrote a few books on magickal rituals to summon those nature gods. Mostly rubbish, if you ask me, and even you have to agree with that, Raven."

She just stayed still.

"But then, in the early seventies, a new player entered the field. A man with a foul temper and a twisted imagination, who earned the nickname of 'The Beast'. He dismissed rituals altogether and looked for a simple system to do real magick. He didn't really worship any gods, but he did call upon a pantheon of gods that to this day is referred to in sci-fi movies. The most famous gods from this pantheon were Agromet, Mestion and Xhikos."

It didn't take long for that last bit of information to ring a few bells for those present.

"The Beast also began writing books on magic, but he didn't bother with notions like reverence or submission. His form was aimed more…universally. The best known power source he used was called 'The Orb of Chaos', a visualising tool that let the user feel the total sum of all possibilities in the entire universe. People who tried it had bursts of creativity and it didn't take long for The Beast to attract followers.  
Unfortunately, the ancient feud flared up again. The woman, who had already forsaken her original name, started writing new books, this time incorporating the ideas of the Beast, but still laden with the philosophy of her own cult. Of course, she adapted the techniques The Beast used; changed a few names of the deities, and claimed to have renamed herself after one of them. What came out was a system that summoned powers of darkness yet claimed to work for peace only, and a very unstable system it was. But from that, a new order of witches came, calling themselves Azarians, after the founder's new name.  
Now, from there, history gets sketchy. A lot of new cults sprang forth from both the new witches and the new magicians, including a few demon worshippers, but it was the witches who got the media attention. Television just loved the whole 'peace on Earth through meditation' mantra that the Azarians used. So a whole slew of TV-shows featuring cheerleader-type heroines swept across the nation, while The Beast's followers had to make due with a handful of characters who didn't even mention The Beast himself. The original pantheon was all but forgotten, but thankfully the followers still managed to put the essential information on the Internet. The ideas of self-development and the twisted sense of humour that they all shared still persevered, and that's where I come in. I found the information on the Net and progressed more quickly than anyone ever had, for reasons I'm not entirely sure of.

But there is one more point to the story that most people don't know. During one of the rituals the woman Azar did to summon a nature god, an immortal planeswalker was summoned instead. He offered her and all the other women in the cult a safe place in a small world he'd created. The world was named, of course, after the god he pretended to be."

"Azarath," Raven said," mother told me about what happened next. Like most immortals, Azarath went mad and turned against the others. He…forced himself upon them. This was before I was born. Azar, though, used an ancient spell to steal his immortality and banished him to the cold recesses of space, where he died. I can imagine why you didn't say anything earlier, Juro, but you still haven't said what the sigil is for. It's not for protection, I know that, but what is it then?"

His reply would give them something to think about for a long time.  
"Have you watched the television recently?"

"Dude, we were in television a few days ago," a certain green elf replied.

"Okay, then, let's try this: call the Titans East," he asked," ask them if they remember the battle against Brother Blood and if they remember me."

Cyborg went to the phone and did just that. Bumblebee showed on screen, cheery as ever.

"Hey Sparky, how's it goin'? And who's that guy in the back?" she asked when she saw Juro.

"You've never seen me before?" he asked.

"I think I'd remember you, kid," came the reply.

Cyborg decided to have a little chat with Bee while he was at it. The other Titans didn't know what to make of it.

"I think something is trying to pull events together. It's letting alternate universes overlap and it's drawing everything to one point. It might be part of the reason why my power's developed so rapidly, but…"

"There'd be a lot more mages like you if that was the whole explanation," Raven continued.

"Exactly. The whole world's changing, except this Tower. That's what the sigils are for. There's a good chance a lot of us are dead in other universes. We might not even exist. The Titans East are already pulled away into a world where I never enter the picture. Same with the city, I checked. But I am pretty sure nobody we know will disappear before we do."

"And what'll happen when this thing is done? What's it trying to do and can we stop it?" Robin had to know, being the leader, of course. His alien friend meanwhile, wondered whether or not he'd admit his love for her in another universe. But that's beside the point.

"I don't know. It might stop once it tries to fight my sigils, it might break through the whole thing, I don't know what'll happen. Its basis is within chaos, undefined by space and time. It could be the cause of a lot of things. I guess we'll just have to wait and see and hope I don't blow up when it acts up again."

"Do you truly think that's possible, friend Juro?" Star inquired, after following the mechanical teen's conversation with his non-girlfriend.

"The Beast's craft is called Chaos Magick, and for a reason. It's not disorder, but it's the total sum of all infinite possibilities in the entire universe. If there is something strong enough to pull all that together, anything's possible."

"What do you think, Raven?" Robin asked. She remained quiet, as it seemed her concerns were unfounded and really a bit silly.

"We'll handle it when we need to," the goth replied.

"That's not what I meant, Rae. If I heard this right, Juro's magic order and yours have a standing rivalry, and you two happen to be most powerful members of each. I'm asking whether or not this is going to continue. That goes for you too, Juro."

"I've never had anything against Azarians, it's the fake fangirls that get on my nerves," the Chaos mage explained.

"I've never had to deal with any Chaos mages, but I've heard stories…I just hope you don't live up their bad name, that's all," she said, with a knowing smile/grin that she'd mastered for years.

"Okay, so that means we're friends as long as I don't open any gates to the underworld or summon big one-eyed monstrosities, right?" he returned the smile.  
It made Raven wonder about a lot of the stories she'd heard. Some about Chaos mages being walking time bombs, but most about love at first sight. If history had taken a different course, maybe things would be easier, but for now she just felt relieved, happy even. Maybe it really was a perfect match.

Mother always said opposites attract.

After that long conversation that had taken up most of the morning, Juro got to training on the obstacle course. He was sweating profusely when he was done, and Raven decided to get a little closer. After all, despite their differences, mages have to stick together, right? She handed him a towel to dry off.  
"I am sorry for this morning, Will," she called him by his real name again, like she imagined his school friends had, then she realised that might not have been a smart idea considering him getting shot in school.

"Well, I'm sorry for not bringing up the Chaos thing. But I've got more than enough things going for me that drive people away as it is. And I'm sorry if I insulted your beliefs, Raven."

"That's okay. When one lives with such colourful company as the Teen Titans, one learns to keep an open mind," she went into her monotone again. It probably wouldn't fool him, but as they started walking back to their respective rooms, Raven tried to keep the conversation going. Maybe lure him out a bit.

"That's not all you're here for, is it?" came the question. 'Right on cue,' she thought.

"No, Juro…I'm still not sure what to call you as a friend. Will or Juro or…"

"Juro's fine. Better than some of the other nicknames I've had," he opened up a bit. A good sign for her.

"Well, it's like this: we live together under one roof. When we Titans first moved in at the approval of the mayor, we didn't know anything about each other. We became fast friends but we took our issues with us. And fighting alongside someone for dear life has a way of opening you up, even me. Then Terra came along; a drifter with the ability to move the Earth. She needed friends and a roof over her head and if things had gone any different, she'd still have that now. But the point is, she opened up almost completely in the short time that she was here, especially to Beast Boy," the witch explained.

"Ah, now I see where this is going. I've read the files. I now what you're going to say next, even without telepathy. I don't open up enough, to anyone. I'm sure Beast Boy and Kai have dropped a few things about me, but you want to know the full story. I haven't switched bodies with anyone, I haven't been sucked into someone's mind and you know I'm too experienced in the matter to ever let that sort of thing happen," even as he said it, his mask seemed to move while his eyes narrowed or widened, or was it his eyebrows moving? How all those boy superheroes and villains managed to get a mask that's both concealing and expressive at the same time, it still puzzled her.

"That's right. So either you start talking or I turn you into a turtle," she said with an uncanny mirth. It was the kind of tone one hears from the cheerfully deranged, like the mad scientist who blows up his lab and then calmly states that he knew the Mercury was too much.

"Well, what do you want to know? How I started? How many girlfriends I've had? Because I should warn you; that's not an interesting story," he matched her playful joke with that.

"What was school life like? What kind of people were in your class? Did the Teen Titans have a local fanclub there?" Raven fired away.

"Well, life gets kind of boring when you're in a different league from anyone else. My parents couldn't even understand a word I said, which was annoying but I guess it's not their fault. You had the usual cliques in my class, but I was the outsider there; I didn't really belong anywhere. I guess I could have been friends with Daniel, but…him and his friends, they've got issues even I can't handle. And as for the fanclub; there was one, but not for the Titans. It was dedicated to you, believe it or not," he said with a flourish. They were going up a few stairs now, and Raven ever so quietly hoped the stairs would last longer than they should.

"Now you're just trying to flatter me. I can't imagine a bunch of girls who'd want to copy me," the problem was, she could imagine it. Suppose a bunch of cheerleaders started dressing up like her and chanting arcane mantras. It made her shudder.

"Oh, believe you me, it's true. You should know how many spells they've tried to fire at yours truly."

"Binding spells or love spells?" Raven asked, seizing the opportunity.

"Both, I kid you not. But naturally most of them were not my type, so I didn't react when the spells fizzled on me."

"And what is your type, Juro?" this was it. The big one. If he answered wrongly to this, she'd make good on that promise to turn him into a turtle.

"I know what you want me to say, Raven. I've been thinking the same thing. But it just can't happen. I can't just go and kiss you without something going horribly wrong in the Tower and you can't kiss me without something blowing up. And if we both hold back, it won't mean anything. It's just what we are and I don't know about you, but I can't change that."

He only realised then that he'd followed her to her room. His was exactly one floor below. She opened her door.  
"At least come in. You're the only one around who knows what it's like to have to hold back all the time. I'd appreciate someone to talk to, as a friend," it was something she'd never done before, to invite a boy to her room. Normal girls, she guessed, knew more of this sort of thing. Normal girls would have known for sure what to say, what not to say and how to say it. Normal boys, on the other hand, wouldn't have doubted about this question. Any normal boy would have given her a reassuring answer before entering.

Neither of them was normal, though, and Raven's door seemed to be open for an eternity…

* * *

Author's notes: Yes, I am leaving you with this little cliffy, yes I know you probably won't like that and yes, I am aware of the cruelty I am committing right now. I'm also fully aware of my ineptitude at writing romances, but hey, I try. As always review, whether you like it or hate it tell me what the problem is, if any… 

Oh and before I forget, I should mention that the little history of Azarians and Followers of the Beast is loosely based on the history of Chaos mages and Wicca. Notice the term 'loosely'. Don't flame me if you feel insulted as a Wicca. I have nothing against you and hope the feeling is mutual. Yes, the Beast is a reference to Aleister Crowley, whom I don't own, and the pantheon is a slight nod to the works of H.P. Lovecraft, also none of my property.

Also, for clarity's sake, I use the term Azarian as a term for anyone using the magic Raven uses, while Azarathian or Azarathean, I can't decide, points to the place of origin, namely Azarath. And I know that's not how the story goes in the original comic books, but remember, we've got the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a slew of Improbability Physics to explain it or at least make it even more confusing.

I love writing.


	13. Coupling of strangeness

Author's notes 1: this chapter was going to be a lot shorter, but I felt I had to fit this piece in someplace and well, this chappie seemed like the best place to put it in. Hope you enjoy and review, please.

* * *

Chapter 13: Coupling of strangeness 

Raven lay on her bed, thinking. Maybe she shouldn't have asked Juro into her room. It wasn't fair to him, really; she'd just treated him as a threat in the morning because of his apparent background, and come afternoon she'd asked him to join her in her room. She didn't know how he felt, she wasn't even sure how she was feeling. Her emotions were fighting her powers and as a result she could see one of her books floating in the air, writhing in black lightning.

"You okay?" Juro asked.

Ah well, at least he'd come in. She felt relieved to have at least told him about her time in the realm of Azarath, about the fact that she'd been unusually old when she first felt human touch and about the trouble she had with emotions. At least he knew what she really meant; he had the same problem, she knew. And the fact that they were both lying on Raven's bed was a complete coincidence: no chairs. It seemed things were a good as they were going to get, and Raven felt glad to be so close to somebody. She noticed his energy was flaring up as well.

"Do you ever wonder about finding happiness with anyone?" the goth replied. Her hand was close to his, but every time she tried to get closer her book shook violently from both influences.

"I try not to. I've been kicked around too much to really go with my emotions. It'd make me too weak," he said, with just a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Come on, you really mean to tell me that, with that attraction spell in place, you had absolutely nobody before you became a Titan? Somebody must have at least asked about you."

"Well, there was one girl, pretty, always laughing, you know the type. She mostly hung out with the other weirdo in school, Daniel, but she dated a quarterback. To me, she was just really friendly. And there were a few factors beyond my control that stopped me from blocking her in my mind."

"And when she broke up with her boyfriend, he shot you, huh?"

"Yep. From my perspective, at least. I'm sure with all the lines of history being pulled together, he'll have forgotten about me. I'm not sure about the others, though," he seemed almost cheery about it, but then again, being mostly bulletproof will have some effects on a guy.

"You mean the girl or…"

"I mean her and Daniel. Daniel's a bit of strange one himself, but we never got along too well: he was a freak by accident, I was one by choice. He preferred not to be confronted with that too much. And as for the other one, she had her own little power. That one…she has friends in high places, that's for sure," Raven could have sworn he was looking at the ones he was talking about in his mind. It must have been quite a series of contradictions for him, but then, that seemed to be the case with a lot of things in his life.

"But I take it they all swore you to secrecy when you found out, right?" Raven was starting to get more of a feel for him now. Robin and Cyborg had both been normal teens at some point in their life, but they had had to deal with less than normal circumstances from an early age. Juro, on the other hand, had lived normally and found it lacking. He'd felt some primal need to be more than that and he'd taken steps to make it happen. There was a world of difference between him and the rest.

"Oh yes. I make no secret of most of my power. When you see infinity, you see everything, everyone, all at once. Depending on how strong you are, you start hearing the thoughts that linger, emotions carried off in the air, without even trying. That upsets some people. You, though, keep your thoughts to yourself. It's quiet around you, and I don't have to hold back to enjoy it."  
Raven, though, found that her mind focused on other things. Juro's power came from Chaos, the total sum of all infinite possibilities in the entire universe. With just a trickle of it, he could alter reality itself, as long as his being could handle the energy. If he wanted to, he could keep a watch on anyone anywhere anytime. He could perceive things that most people wouldn't notice.  
"And if a tragedy happens somewhere near you…" Raven dared.

"I get hit with it at full volume, like it or not," Juro continued," but I guess we all have our problems."

"And your project…" Raven's mind was going fuzzy for some reason, as if she was about to realise something earth-shakingly important," you do those projects to keep your mind occupied, because your power allows your stray thoughts to alter reality as well, doesn't it?" she kept staring at the book as her hand moved closer to his, just trying to keep her emotions at bay.

"That's right. If I think to myself that a card looks nice, two weeks later I have it. If I think I hate somebody, that person will suffer a lot, I don't even have to do anything. And if I ever wonder about the future…"

Raven looked away from her floating book now, and right into his eyes. She hadn't even noticed his mask coming off.  
She knew what he was going to say; if he thought about the future and who to spend it with, bad things happened. Then whomever he chose would return his affections out of free will, but only because events had made it so. Disasters would almost occur, he'd stop them in the nick of time, and by sheer coincidence the one he'd saved would fall in love. And all of this under his influence.

For a brief moment, she tried to compare his history with hers. She had been raised in almost complete isolation, he'd isolated himself, as most mages do. She'd been taught by the greatest in their art, he'd picked up a few things off the Internet and learned from spirits the second he could astral project. She had to restrain her emotions or dark powers got out, he had to control his thoughts or things happened that shouldn't.

He looked her right back in the eye. The crystal in her forehead was throbbing when she realised their hands had finally met without anything blowing up.

"Guess it's better to stay focused on the present."

Then Raven's copy of the Romanomicon fell to the ground with a big thud. Juro withdrew and got up from the bed.

"Where are you going?" the black-clad witch asked.

"Hit the training grounds again. I get all stiff from sitting still like this. Makes my limbs go hard."

If anyone else had said that, Raven would have probably made some very witty remark about limbs going hard, but for now she decided to keep it for herself.  
"Well then, would you mind some company?" Raven got up as well.

At that, he raised an eyebrow.

"What?" she said, with just a hint of a smile," You're going to have to learn to fight back to back some time, Juro. One of these days, you're going to have to fight somebody you can't handle alone. We might as well start now. No use in waiting."

He smiled a little at that, as he put on his mask. Raven guessed he just needed some time. Maybe he wasn't used to anybody actually reaching for him rather than leave him be. Maybe the last person who had tried had ended up regretting it. And maybe she was being a little selfish.

'Oh well, at least we're getting used to each other', she thought, 'maybe if we can both control our powers, who knows, we might make it work. At least nothing exploded when our hands touched.'

Robin and Cyborg were standing on the roof of the Tower while Raven and Juro trained back to back. They were almost perfectly synchronised, but Robin expected nothing less if Juro had his little radar on again.

"Raven's training with Juro?" Cyborg asked.  
"Yep," the Boy Wonder replied.  
"Think she knows?" the half machine teen queried.  
"Knows what?" Robin replied in question form.  
"That Beast Boy's playing with half a dozen of Raven's other personalities as we speak. They just popped out of nowhere a few minutes ago. Now they're doing a free-for-all on the Gamestation."  
"Somehow, I think she doesn't mind," Robin replied, as Raven and Juro tore through yet another set of lasers.  
"Nope, she doesn't seem to mind at all."

That night, after she'd sorted all of her personas out, Raven had trouble sleeping. What if her emotions for Juro were being caused by some stray thoughts from him? Suppose he was responsible? The only way to be sure would be to enter his mind, but that would violate his privacy.  
She decided to let the issue rest. So what if he was causing it himself? He was a fellow Titan, he was a mage who could understand her better than anyone else, if there was anyone she could be happy with, it would be him. She just went to sleep, eventually.

When she opened her eyes, she was in a lush, green field with a shining sun. Her clothes were completely white, and looser than she remembered. She had to be dreaming. Then she saw him, Juro, lying in the sun. He wasn't wearing his mask or his costume, but a black jeans and a dark blue shirt.  
What had happened?  
"Raven? What are you doing here?" he asked, moving towards her.

"Where am I? What is this place?" she was a bit panicked now. This didn't feel right at all.

"It's okay, Rae. You've just stumbled into my mind, that's all. Neither of our powers work here, see?"

Then he kissed her on the lips, and Raven instantly felt her heartbeat go a million miles a minute, the crystal on her forehead throbbed again, everything she had been taught to avoid just happened, yet nothing blew up. No dark lightning escaped from her hands, not even a tiny little ribbon.

She was with him, closer than she'd ever been to anyone, and she was happy. She felt a bit cold, though.

"Oh no, we've got to get you some protection before you freeze up," Juro sounded quite urgent when their lips parted," you won't be able to sustain yourself for long in here. My mind can't handle outside influences very well."

He lowered his hands and in reply, the ground turned to mush under Raven's feet. It started moving up, swallowing her slowly. She felt something inside moving as well.

"Just stay still while the protection is being put on, okay? Everything's fine," he said.

Raven wasn't feeling fine, though. Something was horribly wrong, but she couldn't tell what. The ground moved up to her ankles, and everything it touched seemed to go warm, yet numb. She was fighting panic, as she realised she couldn't get out with her powers. They really didn't work here. Juro stayed calm, though, and still tried to reassure her.

"Really, it's nothing, Rae. Trust me," and then he kissed her on her forehead, his lips going around the crystal embedded there. For some reason, that didn't calm her down. The layer of protection had gone past her knees now, and was steadily making its way to her hips.

"Why does it feel so wrong, then?" she asked. As the substance reached her hips, she could feel her organs shaking, objecting to this alien influence. She felt violated, and she was powerless to stop it. Was this really for her own good or had some villain managed to deceive her?  
No, that couldn't be it. Nobody could know her feelings for her team mate, not this early. The substance went to her stomach now, and she felt relieved when she didn't throw up.

"Quit worrying, Raven. You're perfectly safe. When this is done, you and I will be able to be together without holding back," he kept trying to calm her, but she was starting to struggle at this point, flailing her arms around, trying to get out. He grasped her firmly with both arms.

"Just be still, Raven. It doesn't hurt, does it?"

The substance was now swallowing her chest, and she found it impossible to speak. She wanted to scream, but no sound came. She was stuck, completely helpless at the whim of the only person she thought she loved. She felt panicked, she felt pain, and above it all she couldn't understand anything of it. When the thing completely covered her breasts, only one thought entered her mind.

'Why?'

* * *

Author's notes 2: Hope this is a better cliffy than the last one. Wow, I've gotten to chapter 13 and things have gone this far already. Well, in any event, hope you liked this. I will admit right now, though, that Juro does have a few 'baggages' that really don't seem to contribute to anything. I'll also admit that things are happening in a bit too fast a pace. To that I say: his power is derived from Chaos. They don't call it that for no reason. Everything has its place, however minute, and one thing to keep in mind is that the idea for this story came before Season 5, but I will try and keep some consistency with it. (That means I will add something to refer to 'Go').

On a side note, Raven49er's has finally updated Real World: Teen Titans, a pinnacle among absurd TT fics. If you liked the chapters where the Titans fought Control Freak, You will love Real World: Teen Titans. Absurdity in its most refined state.


	14. Just when you thought you'd seen it all

Author's notes: Well, this is the final background chapter on Juro. Any characters from his past are to be cleared up and/or introduced now and that's final. I've beaten myself up over whom to include and who to get rid of and more importantly, how I'd handle it, so here it finally is; the full background explanation of Juro.

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, or anything they introduced, nor do I own The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which will receive some more attention later on. Although Lovecraft is mentioned here, I own him not.  
I also realise that with this chapter in place, it may start to look like a cheap knock-off of other fics that are indeed better than this one. I assure you, any similarities are purely coincidental.

* * *

Chapter 14: Just when you thought you'd seen it all…

Raven couldn't breathe with the thing pushing the air out of her lungs. The fact that she didn't need to breathe, and that this was all a mental projection of Juro's didn't comfort her one bit. She tried to struggle, she tried to reason, and when all of her attempts failed, she just tried to tell the boy in front her something with her eyes.

He just stared at her, impassively.

Just when she'd lost all sensation in her body from the neck down, Raven felt a shove against her back. If she didn't know any better, she'd have sworn something had rammed the thing. It was enough to break her free, but she was still numb. Juro came closer, but he stopped when saw what had happened.  
Kai, Juro's familiar, whom he had to keep in isolation due to a few side effects on people's free will, stood before Raven now. She'd forgotten all about that one.

"Back off," the turtle-like creature commanded," she's not yours to take!"

To that, his master snarled, and a beastly look came into his eyes. He lunged, only to be met by a head-butt in the stomach. While the youth was gasping for air, Kai grabbed the still paralysed Raven by the wrist and pulled her through a rip in the scenery.  
It took them to a cave, where Kai made a hand, or rather paw, motion, similar to what Juro had done right before the ground had started to swallow Raven whole. And again the ground reacted, this time creating a hole filled with warm water. He dropped her in, rather unceremoniously. She was soaked from head to toe, and she breathed in some of the water, this still being something like a dream. Her clothes were still white, though, and that puzzled her, but as one can imagine, she had other worries to voice.

"What just happened? Why did it feel like I was attacked?" she asked when she resurfaced. She dried up in an instant.

"Because you were," was the simple reply," did you get all the muck off and out? Including…" he gave a 'you know…that' look, the kind mostly reserved for more awkward conversations.  
Raven just nodded. Juro, meanwhile, had found the limit of his scenery and was banging against what appeared to be a glass wall. He was shouting as well.  
"Come back, Raven, please! You can't trust him! He's a liar and a fraud!"

"Care to elaborate, Kai?" Raven asked, confused but not showing it.

"This is Juro's mind. By some form of subconscious magic or coincidence, you landed here. Like most mages of his calibre, Juro has made separate entities of the aspects of his personality, and depending on what kind of person he wishes to be, the entities are given or denied freedom. You've just met the black sheep of the family."

Said sheep was still banging and shouting.  
"And where do you fit in in all this?" the goth now asked.

"I am to make sure that no unwanted outside influences cause any power imbalances. If a fight breaks loose somewhere, I make sure Juro's sense of justice isn't overwhelmed by sheer vindictive instinct. If somebody insults him or tries to hurt him, I'm the one keeping him from simply killing somebody, rather settling on intimidation. And I don't think I need to tell you about the overtime I've had to do when it came to his love life. The one you see back there has serious issues, which means if he gets out, Juro has the same issues. And with his powers…"

"I get it already," Raven interrupted," he's not as stable as I'd want. Is that what you're saying? If my presence is disrupting the fragile balance of his mind, I'll leave."

"I don't recall saying anything about you disrupting the balance, Raven," the turtle now replied," I'm just saying that because of his mastery of Chaos, he's seen and felt the events of countless lives. The lives of both the hopeless romantics and the maniacal rapists, the heroes and the villains, it's gotten so bad he can barely make out who he is. That's what I'm here for. You obviously either got here because you wanted to subconsciously or because he wanted it to happen. Either way, I'm giving you the grand tour. Otherwise you'll keep popping up and that I may not be able to tolerate every day."

Surprised though she was, Raven was inclined to agree.  
"So where do we go now?" she asked.

"Well, I suppose you'll want to meet the other, slightly more social sides of him. His spirit is off gallivanting across the aether again, so he won't notice."

"Does he ever just…sleep?" asked the Raven. They were moving now to a different section of the cave, on a conveyor belt.

"Sometimes, but he's afraid to. If he dreams, some of his thoughts can run free, cause ripples in reality and next thing you know, there's an interdimensional imp turning the city into a cartoon."

That certainly rang a few bells.  
"You mean Larry? That was Juro's doing?" the goth asked, as they reached what looked like the centre of the mind-cave.  
"Oh yes, happened before he gave me my current task. I told him Warner Bros. Cartoons right before going to sleep was a bad idea, but he wouldn't listen. Good thing that imp landed near you, though; if he'd had to deal with it, it would've taken until the end of school time. And that would have surely been the end of Jump City. But I'll get back to that, right now I'd like you to meet the Juros."

Then Raven realised she was standing in an eight-pointed star, the symbol of the Chaos Mages, or rather one of many. At each point there stood a glass ball leading to another compartment containing a facet of Juro himself. Each ball was connected by a red and black wire that led up.  
They went passed the one that tried to attack Raven and came to a stop in front of a red ball, where it seemed the Juro was fighting a never-ending army of demons. The demons were all red or black, and had horns or claws or both. They just kept jumping or lunging, and the Juro there kept batting them away. Neither party seemed to show any signs of getting tired.

"We'll start with the mostly negative ones, show you why he's so weird at times," Kai explained," this one is the Warrior. He's aware of the fact that his actions affect the world, and that some of his actions and thoughts affect it negatively. So he tries to avoid that by fighting the demons you see here. They are everything he tries to do just to stop from changing things into something they shouldn't be. This is one of the older ones, the one that started it all, really. When Juro first realised he wasn't going to excel in anything worth mentioning in high school, he turned to something he could express himself with, only later his mode of expression led him to Chaos Magick. I never did understand how he went from playing a card game to mastering one of the keys to the universe. In any event, you won't want to meet him; the battlefield reeks of blood and he's too busy slaughtering things anyway."  
"I take it he got more powerful when his powers developed?" Raven asked, dreading the answer.

"They all did. But some only came into being after he discovered Chaotic powers. Like this one here," they stopped in front of another ball. This one looked a pale white, sterile, even. In fact, it looked a lot like what insane asylums look like on TV. Of course, Raven couldn't be sure if that was what real insane asylums looked like, she'd never been in one, despite several suggestions of a certain nameless shapeshifter. The one that resided here was huddled into a foetal position, knees drawn up and arms wrapped around his head. He was clad in mental institution white, and leaned next to the wall.

"This one is the Processor. When his Chaotic powers started growing out of proportion, the images Juro received through the Orb of Chaos became too clear, too distinct. He started picking up on things around him. Secrets were leaking out on their own accord, emotions started bleeding off on him, and whenever a crime was close or intense enough, he felt it. This one's the main reason he resorted to this system, really. He's hooked up to the mind, and everything traumatic Juro picks up is fed directly to him."

Raven got a little closer to the ball. He looked so helpless in there, it was…disarming. His eyes showed mostly insanity, as if the weight of the world was on him.  
'The gem was born of evil's fire…' it sounded in Raven's head. The sudden impact of it nearly sent her to the ground.  
"Are you alright, Raven?" Kai asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little head rush. It's been a while since I've left my body this long," she lied. It didn't occur to her that maybe her secrets had passed through here not so long ago, that maybe everyone already knew about the prophecy. She just assumed that her own skills as an empath had been enough to block her thoughts. But what if her father was around? What if he was there, even at that precise moment, trying to corrupt Juro's mind as he had hers?  
"You can go in if you like. This one's perfectly harmless, the only one, really. And he could stand to see a new face around him."

She went inside. She figured that if her demonic father was going to try and take over, he'd have to get passed Kai and gods-only-knew what other defences in place. It wouldn't make much of a difference, anyway. So she stepped through, Kai behind her, and found herself in an environment that looked and even smelled completely sterile. The Juro there was muttering something quietly.

"Too many secrets, too many voices…it never stops…"  
She put a hand on his shoulder, and for the slightest moment, he calmed down. Instead of rocking back and forth, he just shuddered and shook under her hand.  
"No rest for the wicked," he said. Raven pulled away her hand, and he went right back to his insanity.  
When she came back out, Kai explained that the black and red wires led to the part of the mind that dealt with pure information, and that he'd show that later on.

"Now, number four: the Copycat. I'm sure someone with your background would know what an invocation is, right?" he asked it as it was a trick question on a pop quiz.

"Voluntary possession," she answered," you basically take an entity and start acting like it until you become it. Most of the time, people try it to get new powers…Did Juro invoke a space samurai to get his powers?"

"Bingo," came the answer. Now Raven took a good look at the kid in the ball; the spitting image of the main hero in Clash of the Planets. Hence, no doubt, the fact that he'd memorised all the episodes. Decent invocations took some strange work. She recognised the spaceship he was in, too.

"So this one's the jack of all trades, huh?" she asked.

"Indeed," quoth the turtle," right now he's a space samurai, but he used to be a super gamer. Had the most amazing card draws you can imagine. Didn't even need to cheat, neither. This one also takes care of the Chaotic sigils, so he needs special attention. Anything that comes past him gets launched into the real world, and that is dangerous at times."

"I can relate to that," Raven said," let me guess; this one's off grounds because anything I say or do in there would affect the world as we know it?"

"Yeah, that's it," came the reply.  
"I should warn you, Raven," he continued," the ones that follow this one are mainly oriented towards positive actions, but they can be even more unsettling than the ones you've just seen. Are you sure you want to meet them as well?"

"Otherwise I may keep popping back in here, remember? I'd rather see him for what he is, instead of all the walls he seems to put up," even as she said it, she couldn't help but think of Beast Boy. She could only feel a glimpse of what he must have gone through when he was still hitting on her, before Terra had entered the picture. All the things he might have thought after a visit to Raven's own mental universe, Nevermore…it must have been haunting, to say the least. And Raven had to admit she'd put up her fair share of walls herself.

"Number five: the Do-gooder. Everything he tries to do, be it revenge or a small gift for a friend, everything has to have some moral justification and has to be good enough. He's a bloody perfectionist and you would see him shouting commands at the top of his lungs if he wasn't asleep now."  
As it was, Raven could only see a Juro meditating.  
"Number six, and possibly the one that's caused me more grief than all the rest, the Attractor," this one was in a field not too dissimilar from the first one's location, only this Juro wore mostly white," he is the incarnation of the universal desire to find what you'd call love. Though I wouldn't go in there if I were you: he'll bury you under flowers and try to keep you happy for all eternity, unlike the other one, who only symbolises most of the hormonal influences. This one is also responsible for pushing the Master Switch."

"Do I even want to know what that is?" Raven asked.

"Oh believe me, you do. It's a rather funny story, really. Given the fact that he's capable of controlling people's minds and using a power quite like X-Ray vision, he decided at one point that he couldn't risk abusing his power on anyone on a whim, be it intoxication or hormones…any reason whatsoever. So he gave the most sensitive and sensible of his aspects a Master Switch, to be pushed only when his desires took over. Doing this would result in the real Juro losing his powers and becoming completely paralysed, for however long it would take for control to be re-established. We've had few close calls because of that, you can imagine. So if you ever want to be sure if he really likes you, just get really close; if he's paralysed, he likes you. This guy's finger was itching today, and one more second might have resulted in total shutdown."

Raven was speechless. Of all the people who might have joined the Titans, they'd ended up with possibly the only hero who completely shuts down if any girl gets close enough. She could only imagine what high school must've been after he'd rigged that.

Then she realised with a start that there'd been a time that it wasn't installed, which was an even more unsettling thought.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Raven," Kai said.

"Well, at least now I know," she replied, getting her monotone again.

"In any event, number seven is the Meddler. He plans ahead, sifts out the possibilities he sees and reacts when things don't go according to what he thinks is right. He's responsible for Juro's current project, as well as the fight he had with Robin a while ago. It's a shame it didn't work, though: Robin and Starfire would make such a nice couple. But then, there are those…other factors."

"You know why those two won't get together?" the Raven asked.

"I know everything my master knows. But if you really want to find it out yourself, we'll be visiting the information centre shortly."

"What about number Eight?" she only noticed then that the eighth ball was frozen, covered in ice so thick it blocked whatever was inside from view.

"Number Eight stays alone. He isolates himself out of respect for everyone else. He deals with Juro's darker secrets. But you know most of those already. Except of course…"

"What his seventh project is?" Raven pondered the question for some time, and everything she'd just heard, every little bit of information led her to one answer.  
"I think I already know," she simply stated, though the full volume of it hadn't quite hit her yet.

"Good, then you won't mind finishing the job when it's over."

While she had been thinking, a platform had formed under her feet and Kai's, and begun to raise itself to the ceiling. A rope came out of the ground and Kai tied it around her waist.

"I'm still going to show you what information resides here. You will need the rope; it'll be very disorienting and a lot will go through you at once. But you do deserve to know, I think. With what's been coming from you, what he already knows, it wouldn't be fair if you didn't get equal treatment. Just give me a shout when you want to exit, okay?"

And before she could answer, she was thrust upward, into a room where the colour blue seemed predominant, but white winds of all sorts blew through at mind-boggling pace. She didn't have long to ponder the surroundings, as the winds and the information they carried hit her.

"The entry came from a drifter, Robin. I think you know who," one wind…  
"Will you just stay out of my fights? It's bad enough you're showing off!" another…it all came at once and every single one was a situation, a place and time in his memory or someone else's. Sometimes she saw Juro through another's eyes, sometimes she saw the situation through his.  
It defied description.  
"Cats and monkeys don't mix."  
That was Robin's voice, to Juro…  
"Come on Slade stop sending me robots. Show your real strength."  
That was him, talking to himself when Slade had attacked the city with Terra as his general…  
"Maybe I need a weapon against ghosts and spirits. Should make an interesting project."  
Juro in his spare time…  
"You're welcome."  
Him to some other kid with black hair…  
"If you're so interested in invocations look it up yourself!"  
Him to what was no doubt the Raven fan club…  
"We space samurai are pretty smart," he said to his teacher…  
"It should never have been allowed to happen!" he shouted at nothingness...  
"This new girl's got me all riled up, Kai. I can't get her off my mind, but she's seeing Brock, the dumbest jock known to man. If only she didn't come from Japan…" him again, in what she assumed was his room…  
"Come out, Slade! I know you're around here somewhere!" that one was strange, it seemed as if Robin and Juro's voice joined.  
"What you need is the Tome of Ultimate Knowledge. The single book to compile all of the knowledge in the entire Universe. Perhaps that would contain something that could help you," a ghost said to him…  
"Ah well, at least I'm the animal expert," Beast Boy pondering his oft underestimated mental capabilities…  
"I don't care! I know what the answer is, even if nobody else will see it, and I will not let things rest as they are! It's not fair to them!" Juro shouting again, this time in the aether…  
"Beast Boy's figured it out. He should have, anyway," Robin thinking about his relationship with Starfire…  
"Of all the countries, it had to be the one whose pantheon I contact the most! I can't just switch now; I've made ties to them. What the heck am I going to do? I need to stop myself from doing something stupid or turning…evil." Juro in his room again.  
"Who's butting in in whose fights now, Daniel?" Juro was standing by his locker there, held back by some kid with dark hair while somebody was taunting him, but Raven couldn't quite make out what exactly was being said…

"Look Will; I'm sorry Brock keeps picking on you. But don't you think you're a little bit too strange yourself? I'll bet he'd stop if you were just normal.  
-No, because then I'd just be a weak victim. And with all due respect, I don't think you have the right to tell me what's normal. I know about your power and I know who you talk to on the Internet," that was a conversation between Juro and a girl, Raven assumed that was the one he kept referring to.  
The storm of images didn't seem to end, until there came one deafeningly clear one. For a short time, only one thing went through her.

"You've got to hand it to Lovecraft: he sure knows how to test your stomach. Whoa, that was scary; was Juro there just now? How long has he been there? Why didn't I notice him? What's he reading? Oh, for goodness sake, girl, get a grip. Just casually glance over your book to see what he's reading.  
'Chainer's Torment'  
Sounds like my kind of reading. Oh no, I'm turning red. How long ago has that been? Oh yeah, since this morning when BB kept nagging about his tofu waffles. But that was out of petty frustration. Can't remember when I last blushed, though…oh well, back to Lovecraft before Juro notices the red face. How long has he been sitting there, though? He flips his pages without making a sound…if I didn't know any better I'd say he did that because he wanted to be polite. Trying to give me total silence…that's nice. Suppose he's into me?  
No, couldn't be. He's used to hanging around normal people, whatever that means. Still, we are the only two mages in the T-Tower, from what I could gather, he's had it rough…  
Am I falling in love with him? Gods, Raven, don't. Remember Malchior."

Raven gave Kai the shout. He let her descend. Hearing her own thoughts was bad enough, but the fact that Juro knew about them was a bit of a shock, even though she'd tried to tell herself that it was a possibility.

"So, were you right about the project?" Kai asked. Raven sorted everything out before answering:  
"His thoughts mostly dwell on the same thing. There's only one thing that might connect it all," she answered.  
"Good. Then I trust you will keep your discretion?"

Raven was a bit confused there.  
"Most of his Chaos Magick works through the subconscious, as you no doubt know," Kai explained, "his conscious mind must never approach what he needs to do, or he will surely fail. He can't afford to think about his project for what it really is, and his mind is already conditioned enough to do just that. If you go up to him and simply tell him that you know, nothing will happen. But to even hint at what it really is would ruin his chances forever."  
"I'll keep quiet, then, Kai. Thanks for the tour. It was very…enlightening."

"Ah, and we finished right in time, my dear. I hear my master is coming back from his little trip. Off you go."

And with that, Raven woke up, dressed the same way as she had been when going to sleep. She got up at the same time as she always did, and went up to meditate.

And just as always, Juro followed, oblivious to what Raven now knew. They just there, meditating in peace and enjoying each other's company.  
Kai, meanwhile, checked his master's calendar. He'd promised to kill a bird that was supposedly going to destroy the world in return for the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The day of the destruction was approaching, and he noticed so was the day of the completion of Juro's seventh project.

* * *

Author's Notes: Well, I suppose everyone's figured out the true identity of Juro's classmates by now. I stink at riddles, really. Just leave the review to let me know whether you know. I'm sure you know by now. In any event, next chapter will see the battle of the Invokers, when Raven's fanclub decides to go criminal, with strange new powers... 


	15. What are cows?

Author's notes: In the line of ideas that led to this story, this one came pretty late. Actually, it came really late, when I had in fact finished the first part of Reality Checks and TV Bills. At some point then, this idea popped into my head. Don't ask how or why. In fact, forget everything I've said in all of my author's notes. I get crazy ideas from time to time, and while the general story line remains mostly unchanged, the stuff that gets added turns real crazy, real fast.  
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel, Guide or movie) and I don't own Pokémon. That's right: I'm doing Pokémon again, but not in the way you're used to them…again. Scribble 23 is based on Scribe 27, whom I don't own either.  
Also, if you wish to use the characters known as the Pokékids or the Invokers (though I can't imagine why) ask first. It's only polite.

Chapter 15:What are cows?  
Juro didn't really seem too fazed by Raven intrusion into his mind. He really hadn't noticed a thing, which was a relief. There were a few subjects that were best left untouched when it came to what she'd seen. Kai stayed in the protective sphere rigged in Juro's room, with amulets, talismans and sigils raising enough of a barrier. He did come out at night, though, when his master was asleep. He liked to chat.

For a few days, things were quiet. Juro's supposedly less than stable powers were left unmentioned, Raven found that the boy was starting to finish her little jibes, and one day after a little remark about waffles, Cyborg disappeared through a vortex, hurtling him through space and time.

Yep, things were back to normal at Titans Tower.

Strangely, after the disappearance of their mechanical friend, every single Titan dropped what they were doing and stared at Juro. He still had a book in hand and found the whole thing quite awkward.

"Are you gonna look at me like that every time there's a tear in the space/time continuum?" he asked, which reminded a lot of those present of a situation Terra had once found herself in.

"I'll see if I can get him back," Raven droned, as if this sort of thing was common as hydrogen in the T-Tower. Then again, strange events had happened since their last asset.

Raven went to her room to research on opening time portals. By sheer accident, she stumbled upon a calendar.  
There really wasn't any reason for her to have one; with all probability being pulled together, the dimensions of time were affected as well. According to their calendars, they should have been nearing Christmas already, but in their reality, Cyborg's temporal tracking device showed it was May. Raven idly wondered what that meant. In their reality, twisted as it was, her birthday was coming up. And she knew what that meant.

She pulled out her friend a few minutes after that. Telling time is pretty easy, and telling time what to do isn't all that different when you know what you're doing.  
Of course, even such power is no match for the universal might of bad timing, which reared its pretty little head right then. The alarms went off, and Cy's batteries had been exhausted, so he wouldn't be able to fight.

The disturbance came from a school visit to an open house college day. Some students had started causing a ruckus and the Titans were needed to handle the situation. When Juro saw the names of the perpetrators, he turned white. Robin asked what everyone was thinking.  
"You know them?"

"Sort of. The way I knew them, they were just kids who went with every fad there was. Last I knew they were obsessing about Raven. Even asked about invocations. I said 'Look it up yourselves!' I can't imagine why they'd be a threat now."

Half an hour later…

Robin ducked under a lightning bolt.  
"You were saying!" he shouted. Apparently some of Juro's words had had some effect on the teens, even though he was probably written out of their memories already.

"How was I supposed to know they'd actually go and invoke something?" Juro replied, in between Thundershocks and Flamethrowers.

_And now for a few words on invocations. The invocation, like many acts of real Magick, is often done accidentally and can have very strange effects on the unwary. Most sources tend to differ on the details, but thankfully, the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy has its own spiritual consultant, Scribble 23. He is currently seen as the authority on all things magical, and he explains things far more clearly than say, Raven or Juro himself. This is what he has to say on the subject:  
'Invocations basically change you into something. You start to get a new personality, you might look a little different over time and you might even develop some supernatural power.  
Most often it happens because the mage doing the invoking is obsessed with something or someone. This obsession can be voluntary, but very often isn't. However, the main exercise of the whole thing is to copy all aspects of whatever is being invoked, throw some free energy into it and presto! You've got some cool new abilities to show off. Obviously, the bulk of the reported cases were kids trying copy heroes from holographs or television, and copied them a bit too well. The results of accidental invocations can range from finally finding a girlfriend or friendly frying a non-friend.'  
Scribble 23 continues by saying that it is one of the easiest things to do as a mage, but also pretty darn dangerous and foolish. After all, when you copy some bits of a personality, you will eventually lose pieces of yourself._

This all being said, one should now have some idea of the initial shock, disbelief and general surprise when it turned out that the rowdy students were not only former classmates of Juro's, but also happened to have invoked a few Pokémon.

So the Teen Titans had squared off against five kids dressed in the colours of their monster, and the sheer surprise of their powers had given their foes a small upper hand. The fact that Cyborg was still recharging didn't help a lot, either.

In any event, there were five kids, but Juro and Beast Boy knew full well that there had to be sixth Pokémon or Pokékid or whatever lurking around. Juro recognised one guy in a Pikachu-based costume, yellow obviously being the main colour, with a cap that ended in pointy ears. Another guy was dressed in red, and had a ponytail that ended in a tiny flame, as well as pathetic-looking little green wings. And in true Pocket Monster fashion, any attempts at a decent dialogue failed miserably, as the foes in question only shouted out their names or parts of it.

Starfire and Beast Boy had begun battling one girl dressed in dressed in blue and white who wielded what looked like a blue ball on a spring, as well as a fourth teen who looked wrapped in green foliage and had a rosebud on her head. The fifth of the gang was hovering over all of their heads, and squared off against Raven.  
The resemblances between those two were scary. The guy, or at least everyone assumed it was guy, was dressed all in black, and appeared to have some thorny spines sticking out of his back.

After their small breather, Robin and Juro leapt back into the fray against the Pikachu and Charizard look-alikes. Robin got out his bo staff, but Juro went unarmed, rather relying on speed to dodge the lightning and flame coming at them. Their foes weren't too well schooled in martial arts, but the Pika-kid was fast enough to dodge all the blows Robin tried to land, and Juro was a bit preoccupied absorbing the heat coming from the other guy to break the apparent stalemate.

Star and Beast Boy weren't faring any better, either. The girl in blue fought like a Marril, swinging her springy weapon this way and that, as well as shooting bullet-like bubbles from her mouth and hands. The other one, which BB recognised as Rosalia, conjured up razor sharp leaves and unlike the guys in their weird little group, these two coordinated their attacks, effectively putting the two Titans under a crossfire, who saw themselves shooting leaves out of the air and dodging bubbles as a squirrel.  
Raven, on the other hand, had no trouble with the Gengar guy or whatever he was supposed to be. He only managed to launch one Night Shade, which met in mid air with Raven's spell, and quite simply got pushed aside. He only lasted about thirty seconds of actual fighting.  
When his unconscious body fell to the ground, the others stopped fighting for a moment. Both sides looked surprised, thinking that they were supposed to be more or less equal in power. The initial rush had driven the Titans back, but in an actual fight they'd proven a good match. So why had this one guy lost so easily?

Beast Boy, back in human form, slapped himself over the head.  
"Of course! They've got the same weaknesses as the real thing!"

That's all the incentive the Titans needed. Robin was the first to react, flipping over the yellow one and shouting: "Where's the red guy's weak spot?"  
One short answer and one freezer disk to the flame later, the red threat was down for the count. While his yellow compatriot stared in disbelief, the self-proclaimed God of Luck punched him in the face with two fists at once. A fell blow to the cheeks took down the electric mouse kid. The two remaining girls resumed their synchronised attack, bobbing and weaving while shooting to make themselves harder targets, but when Raven caught some of the Razor Leafs in her black telekinetic spell, even they seemed to panic. After rebounding the Leafs at the Marril girl and freezing the rose-based girl, things quieted down in the exposition hall. Only now did the Teen Titans notice the mass of pupils who had come that day, cheering them on, though most didn't recognise the blue and grey brawler. Charlie, Pete, Rosy, Mary and Gerald were knocked out, back to normal and it seemed they'd been hypnotised by someone too.

Then everything got quiet.

The sixth weirdo came into view, slowly but surely, having teleported there and levitating downward. He stood mostly on his toes, and he kept his fingers bunched together so it looked like he only had three on each hand. His face was pale, and his ears were disfigured, probably due to some energetic contamination. Juro didn't know who it was, but Beast Boy knew who it was supposed to be.  
They were both a little anxious about this one.  
Before them stood a human version of Mewtwo.

TTTTTTTTTT

Meanwhile, back at the T-Tower…  
"Titans Tower, Jump City branch speaking. With whom do I have the honour?" Kai was used to receiving calls from spirits who wanted little favours or just felt like chatting about secrets not heard in centuries. Picking up phones was not that much of a career change.

"This is Bumblebee from Titans East. Who are you? Are the Titans there?"

"I'd introduce myself, but it wouldn't be worth the time. The only one here is Cyborg and he's asleep right now. Would you like me to wake him?"

He noticed now the panicked and confused look on the girl's face.  
"Yes, please. It's urgent."

'Click, click, hum.  
Click, click, hum.  
That's funny. I thought it was supposed to be click, click, click?'  
After this very enlightening contemplation the part metal Titan woke up from his slumber, and Kai gave him the communicator.

"Heya, Bee. What's up?"  
He didn't realise she was scared either.

"Something big, Sparky. Aqualad's done an ocean-wide search, he's contacted every marine animal he could find and it all points to one thing: the dolphins are gone."

Cy, having travelled through time and aided a legendary tribe in a long-forgotten struggle this morning, was feeling a little fuzzy. In other words, he didn't know what in blazes she was talking about.  
"What do you mean, the dolphins are gone? Which dolphins? They can't just have vanished."

"They have, Cyborg," and that last bit sunk in really deep, because she never just called him Cyborg unless something was really wrong, "all of them. As far as we know, every single dolphin on the entire planet is missing. The only thing we have left of them is a bunch of glass bowls with a message."

"So what's the message? A ransom note?" Cy asked, dreading the answer.

"So long, and thanks for all the fish."

TTTTTTTTTT

Juro wasn't too sure about this last one. There had only been five fad-following weirdoes in his class, the rest of them being a more typical weirdo or just normal. In short, this guy was a complete stranger.

The Mewtwo kid spoke, without moving his lips.  
"You stand between me and world domination. Prepare to be annihilated."

The Titans were hit by an invisible wave of pure force, and it took both Raven and Juro to brace the impact of it. BB was the first to speak after the attack.  
"Guys, this is bad. Mewtwo is almost indestructible. It's got telekinesis, recovery power, speed and defense…we're going to need some heavy artillery for him."

"Titans! Fan out!" Robin didn't waste time in planning their strategy," Attack his sides all at once, and don't let up until he's down!"

It was easier said than done, of course. Robin discarded his projectiles, in case their new foe got the idea of using his TK on them, while Beast Boy circled around and attacked the left rear, one moment flying as a crow, the next dropping a few tons of hippopotamus straight down. The malformed psychic caught the green ten-ton teen and launched him up just a few inches overhead. He bounced the hippo on his hand some more, when two starbolts caught him in the chest.

He teleported away, letting the hippo drop unceremoniously to the ground, before sending Starfire flying with another psychic blast at point blanc range. Raven now covered him in black energy, which he retorted with his own telekinetic power. The black ball he was in burst open, driving its caster back a few steps. She was dazed at the recoil for a few precious moments. The gangly youth decided to go for the kill on this one, as he was bound by the rules of Pocket Monsters, and being part psychic Pokémon he was weak to any and all Dark influences. He casually strolled toward Raven when Robin and Juro let loose a flurry of punches and kicks, one using the Oriental style of martial Arts, the other Captain Olimar's Ven Zo Legion of Pain techniques. They put up an impressive show for the crowd, but sadly their foe slipped by them in the blink of an eye, teleporting right before the black-clad mage, hand raised to deliver a world-shattering blow. Raven raised her arms in cross formation, ready for impact.

"Zort."  
That was the last thing she heard before seeing her would-be assailant flung right back into Robin and Juro, propelled by a green starbolt. Beast Boy and Star were getting back on their feet, too.

The Mewtwo kid jumped back to his feet, then instantly healed his wounds and bruises.

"Poit."

Everybody thought they heard it, but it didn't make any sense. Mewkid, or whatever he called himself, gestured to Raven and Juro, challenging them both to fight alone. No back up from the other Titans, just the two mages against the psychic Pocket Kid. They both stood on either side of him, Juro taking the left, Raven the right. Raven launched another spell, but it was deflected and it took her some effort to gain control of the energy again. Juro went physical, and used his own telekinetic power to shove aside that of his opponent. He went into a series of punches and kicks that ended with a quick fist to the face.

"Narf."

Raven, on the other hand, had had enough. She could handle kids being hypnotised and using powers from TV-shows, heck, she lived with one of those. She could even handle the roaring crowd, which was beginning to get a little on her nerves now. What she could not handle was some psycho who was clearly way more powerful than he should be spouting out nonsensical jibberish in the middle of a fight the likes of which she had seen enough of to fill an entire friggin' Barry Winter series.  
To summarise: Raven was not feeling too happy. So while her friend tangled with the psychic psycho, Raven chanted something a little different from her usual spells.

"Necronom Hezberek Mortix"

Black energy poured from her hands, as well as her mouth, and this time it hit home. Juro backed away in time to see the Mewkid get electrocuted, only with darkness instead of electricity. Raven calmed it down. She was pleased at herself to know that now she was strong enough to handle the spells Malchior had taught her. It did bring back a few memories…but most were best left unexplored.

The other Titans were quick to congratulate her on a foe well felled. The kid in question still didn't look familiar to Juro, but he had heard a few familiar words during the fight. He pulled the kid's face off on a hunch, and it proved correct.

Inside the kid's face, which later turned out to be a technorganic android, two mice were bickering over their supposed mission.

"Wahaha! That was fun, Brain, let's do that again, poit!" one exclaimed.

"Curses! The gamma brain rays have failed! I could have taken down Washington with my unholy Pokémon legion, and I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!" the other one replied.

"Figures. The class pets, Pinky and the Brain," Juro sighed," how those critters never got noticed is beyond me. So now that you're caught in the afternoon, what are you going to do tonight, Brain?"

Pinky was curious as well.  
"Yeah, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?"

"The same thing we do every night, Pinky: try to take over the world!" the other one roared.  
The two mice were carried off, the kids were taken into custody for a full report, and the Titans simply debriefed.

"So he went after you two because you posed the biggest threat in power," Robin pondered aloud.

"And he left you out because he was outnumbered otherwise. He knew he'd have needed the time to finish either one of us off, and as a team that never happens to us," Raven replied," which reminds me: Star, thanks for saving me. It would have ended a lot worse if you hadn't blasted him."

Star looked surprised.  
"Pardons, friend Raven, but I didn't save you. I fear that blast was too close to me for me to weather it. I was down as long as friend Beast Boy."

"Then who…" Raven dared.

"Would you excuse me for a minute? I need to check on something," and with that Juro made to enter the now dispersed crowd.

"Where are you going?" Beast Boy asked.

"I'm going to see if anyone has any memory of me. I need to know if I still exist to some people," came the reply.

He weaved his way through the crowd, most people not taking too much note. Superheroes were sometimes seen as idols, but everybody knew they were still people, so everyone just minded their own business. He looked around, trying to find…there.

There she was: the foreign student who by some strange coincidence had bypassed his mental defences. The first normal girl who had really gotten to him. The one he'd got shot over. She was looking at a few folders from a university, he didn't catch the name, when she obviously recognised him.  
At least there was somebody who wasn't affected by the mysterious force pulling Probability together.

"Is that you, Will?" she asked quietly.

"Yep, it's me alright," he replied. This one had always made him a little nervous.

"Don't worry, Brock's not around. And he seems to have forgotten about you. Is something happening to people's memories?"

"Nothing you should be concerned about. We're on it," he lied. He didn't know where to find the thing or how to stop it, but he rather kept that a secret. He didn't want to upset her, and he hoped he wouldn't slip his tongue and say her name. Juro was always careful with names of people he cherished, lest they trigger something in his mind. It was different when other mages were involved or during battle or if the perimeter was secured with sigils, but for this one…he'd always avoided saying her name aloud, just in case. There was an awkward silence, and neither of them really knew what to say next.

"So, you're a Titan now, huh?" she broke the silence first.

"Yeah. Funny how things go, isn't it? Which reminds me, did you bring your friend here by any chance?"

"My friend?"

He gave her a 'you know…' look. It wasn't too clear through the mask, but she got it nonetheless.

"Oh, that friend! No, of course not. I'm not stupid."

"I guess not. It's just that…somebody intervened in our fight just now, and I was wondering…

They both felt the message more than heard it. It came out of nowhere:  
"Nice to see you're still alive and kicking."

"Well, I guess that answers that question," Juro stated.

Another stranger came up to them then. That is to say, Juro didn't know him. He had blond hair, and he got a smile out of the pink-haired girl. Juro assumed it was her new boyfriend.

"Oh, Michael," she said," I want you to meet an old friend of mine, this is…" she only realised halfway that she couldn't just call him 'Will' in front of all those people.

"Juro, after a Japanese God of Luck. I'm pretty hard to kill, so…"

When they shook hands, Juro could feel power coursing through Michael's veins. 'Another power to add to the long list,' he thought.

"Pleased to meet you. Look, I'd hate to break off the reunion, but the busses are about to leave. We've got to go."

Juro saw her trying to make an apologetic gesture, but he waved it away.  
"I've got to go too, anyway. My friends are probably wondering what's keeping me."

When they got back to the Tower and Cyborg informed them of the marine emergency, Robin decided to let it rest for the time being. The day had been too weird already. Raven was a little curious about the spectre of Juro's past that had flitted by, but she didn't press it. It did turn out that Juro would have to leave on his bird-killing quest soon, though, and that did give everyone something to worry about.  
If the dolphins had left the planet and mice began world-domination plans while an unknown force was messing up the rules of Probability, shouldn't there be some reinforcement to go with him?

"Look, guys, the ghost that gave me the Guide was very specific. I'm the only one who has to go, and I need to arrive at a set time and place. If we're lucky, the bird I'm supposed to kill is what's causing all this weirdness, so we might all have a little more peace after I destroy it."

And indeed, it happened exactly the way he promised. On the 3rd of May, he departed for England, taking a normal plane like everyone else, so that he'd be able to scope out the place when the bird appeared on May 7th. It occurred to Raven that this meant he'd probably miss her birthday on May 8th, but it was probably for the best.

On the 4th of May, the Titans saw a spaceship appear on the horizon. Several, even. One of them appeared to be towing another along, and three more were shooting the first two. The towing ship went this way and that, but its semi-spheroid form made it less than perfectly agile. The ship in the back looked too beaten up to join the fray, and the towing vessel didn't have any weapons, or at least none that were being used. The dogfight went on around Titans Island, laser shots streaking across the water, when all of a sudden the towing ship went straight up and the ship in tow lost a passenger. It was a male being with a skin of silver, it seemed, and it dropped right unto one of the assailants, tearing open a cockpit with bare hands. The Titans were honestly impressed, but not for long, as the other two ships kept shooting and the silver hero seemed to have underestimated the simple Law of Gravity on this planet.

Not that it mattered, though, because right at that moment, one of the ships turned into a bowl of petunias and the other into a giant pile of gelatine, which swallowed the silver man in mid-fall, and also nicely broke said fall.

Starfire and Raven went to his aid, in case he'd broken something vital in his anatomy. Well, Raven wanted to make sure he hadn't broken anything while Star came along in the more likely event that someone had to eat all the Jell-O. The Titans were hailed then, but it sounded as if there was a debate going on about who would do the talking.

"You try talking! It's your zarking planet!" one voice said. The other one was a lot more polite, and spoke slowly and calmly, imitating Clash of the Planets, no doubt. He sounded English:  
"This is Arthur Dent of the Heart of Gold, we have a hitch hiker with us named Val-Yor who'd like to use any repair facilities you may offer. We request permission to land."

Robin, Beast Boy, even Cyborg, they all got a sudden headache when they realised they were talking to the dead guy who had given their friend his Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Raven and Star had already secured Val-Yor, who strangely spoke English as well. Another voice came through the communication.

"And this the President of the Galaxy, telling you weird kids to get some better dress code and help us out if it's not too much trouble."

Meanwhile, in England…

"Great. Three more days to go and nothing to do," Juro muttered. He knew where he had to be, he knew when he had to be there, and now he had to wait.

While the Titans shot off into space with their new friend Val-Yor, Guide being supplied by Kai and the Heart of Gold having turned into a banana split before disappearing into thin air, Juro found some mildly disturbing things happening in England on May 5th, 6th and eventually 7th. For one thing, a lot of spaceships were landing, with some very disturbing but seemingly harmless people on them. The first was big news world wide, the second was pink and didn't get as much attention, and the third only made it to local news. Then it turned out somebody had bought up London Zoo. Juro didn't pay it any heed. On the 7th day of May, he positioned himself in front of the nightclub he had been told to stake out, and waited for the right time.

He saw some girl enter carrying a gun, dragging an older woman with her, possibly her mother.  
He saw two guys run in, one dressed in fancy shoes, the other being presumably dead, but Juro didn't do a thing then.  
He waited until Big Ben gave him the signal to enter, and he entered.

Apparently there was a bit of a commotion with the gun-toting, wild-eyed girl. She pointed her gun around at random people.

"Where do I fit?" she screamed," I thought I fit here, on the world that made me, but it turns out my own mother doesn't even know who I am!"

This seemed like a familiar argument. Juro had done it himself a few times. The fact that he was being deleted from reality for some reason didn't sit too well with him. He spread out his senses, encompassing the gun and taking in some of other people's thoughts. There was a lot of anxiety, uncertainty, fear…the girl, Random she was called, didn't know where she belonged. Even as her mother tried to comfort her, memories flitted past her mind into Juro's, and what he saw inspired…pity. Those feelings, that pent up fear…it was as if her soul was scared. It seemed strangely familiar. A deadly silence fell over the room, only to be broken by a guy coming out of the restroom. The sudden movement shocked the girl and she would have hit somebody if Juro hadn't telekinetically moved the gun away. She looked surprised to see him, and for one fleeting moment, something clicked. Her soul was familiar.  
He didn't know how, but he had no doubt about the one he was really looking at. Just one name might spark some recognition, and he saw in her eyes that she was thinking the same.  
"Raven?" he asked.

"Donny?" she asked.

Okay, not quite what he'd expected. He also didn't expect the bird behind Random to fly up and start shouting:

"No! Why can't I see you! Why aren't you flattened under a plane engine?"

Then it attacked.

This was turning out to be a very, very strange day indeed.

To be continued…

Author's notes 2: The good news is, I won't be able to write any more for at least a month or two. Exams are coming up again and I need as few distractions as humanly possible. Wait, that was the bad news. The good news is you can leave your reviews here. Or was that bad news? I guess it all depends on whether you liked this or not. Either way, review, tell me what you liked or disliked and I'll see what can be changed.

Disclaimer 2: Credit where credit is due, the idea for the Pokékids was inspired by one brilliant entry in an NGC magazine. Picture this: Wind Waker Link dressed all in yellow save the tights, has a tail like a Pikachu, a lightning rod on his belt and his cap ends in two pointy ears, Pika-style. He is looking thoroughly angry, tapping his chest with his thumb, exclaiming: "Budget cuts or not, I **DEMAND **to see my lawyer!" I'm not sure if I have to post the guy's name, I will if I can find the mag they put it in…but now you know.

Review! I may be tempted to put Pinky and the Brain back in there somewhere!


	16. What is home?

Authors notes: No, I'm not going to say 'I'm baaack…', because I'm not. Not really. Not at the time of writing, in any event. As I write this, holiday's started, and in a few weeks I'm packing up and goin' to France for 2 weeks of sun and swimming. Anywho, this is going to be a bit of a long AN, so if you're just interested in reading how the story goes on, I strongly suggest you scroll down right now. If not, I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you some insights this fic has given me.

For one thing, my brain seems to function like a randomised thinking tank. When I see something I like that doesn't get the attention I feel it deserves, I am obliged to set this straight ASAP. This has already led to the fight in the previous chapter as well as the bulk of the Reality Checks-trilogy, as I mockingly refer to it. I say 'mockingly', because the chapters themselves could have been a lot longer. I could have given BB some serious psychological trauma after his brief fling with Sabrina (if you can call being the pet and mental slave to a deranged psycho a fling), much in the same way I might have danced around Juro's project some more. But you see, therein lies one big problem I have: I always seem to focus on the content and message so much that I lose track of style and generally ignore whether or not my story is enjoyable to others. After reading the first few chapters, I conclude that they SUCK because of this. I'm just glad I saw it (believe me, it's happened before) and corrected it later on. I like to think the story got better over time.  
But you see, this brings me to the next big problem; my intent originally was to make a story about a Chaos Mage who ends up with the Teen Titans. People just don't know Chaos Mages any more in a media that's dominated by witches, warlocks and demons constantly fighting for world domination; the infinite struggle between good and evil kindly leaves out the ones who are…well, I'll get to that later. Point is; I wanted to spread some stereotypes and invent clichés so people would at least have something to think about when they hear about Chaos Mages. The big problem as I see it now is that Juro simply does not represent the stereotypes I want to spread. So starting this chapter, I am going to tear him down and start over again. More even, I intend to add it to the plot. This was not my original idea, but it certainly seems like a good one right about now.  
My third and final point is a message that may be helpful to other writers: always remember you are trying to get other people to like your story. If you take this into account at every word, pun and plot you write, you'll be doing yourself and especially the other readers a big favour. Spell-check, re-read things so they make sense to other people as well, except for the stuff that they're not supposed to get (I admit it, you also need to have seen Donny Darko and read the novel of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and had a minor course in Ethics to fully understand all the things I'm trying to say. It also helps if you are yourself a chaote and/or tantrist. Just thought I'd mention that). So what I'm trying to say here is: I will yield to the wishes of the general public if ever so slightly and will be adding my own little take on Rob/Star and Rob/Rae. If you had any questions regarding my sanity, you will be assured after reading those bits that I have little to none.

Now, to disclaim: I don't own Teen Titans, the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or Chaos Mages. I also don't own Donny Darko or reincarnation and all I know of the CB 3000 and the things similar to it is what I read on the Internet. I do not have a keyholder in my life, nor do I have anything that may require a keyholder. Also note the rating, people, I will be true to my promise, no real lemon but I believe the word 'vanilla' or 'Ecchi' may be appropriate in later chapters. I would also rectify a slight oversight in the previous chapter and say that Scribble 23 is based on Scribe 27, one of my favourite occult authors. I also don't own the Ninth Immortal, though I did come up with him, he's based on an existing legend.  
And now for the story.

Chapter 16: What is home? 

The world collapsed in one big 'WOP', and Juro found himself alone with the bird thing. Everything else was gone, and he was caught in a maelstrom of realities and unlikelihoods as the thing launched attacks on him in a way that seemed to defy his mind. He tried using TK on it, he tried to absorb the blasts, if one could call it that, he even tried to punch it, but it seemed to duplicate itself into infinite dimensions at a whim. He couldn't use his powers on this. Even his blade seemed useless, and his darts kept rewinding themselves in time, landing neatly in his pocket.

Then it hit him. It was like Zen Buddha, a surge of enlightenment that opened up his mind. This thing, whatever it was, had to be responsible for altering the Improbability. The reason his powers had developed so quickly was because they followed rules. The active powers he'd gotten through invocation were subject to laws, structures and a final say from karma. This thing could overwrite those rules and as such, the powers he mainly used were useless.

It all made sense. This thing had engineered events to push him into situations were he willingly followed certain rules he would otherwise be exempt from. His rush to active power, his lack of control of the other powers, even the fact that weird things happened if he spoke the name of certain people, it all came down to this thing trying to destroy him.

And the only reason it would do that, would be because those other powers could make him invulnerable to it, and maybe even allow him to destroy it.

He cleared his mind and let the image of infinity wash over him. His conscious mind did nothing, but unconsciously he sent a wave of power at this bird…the Mark 2 it was. It screeched in agony as Improbability began doing things it couldn't control…it started dictating that it could not exist, just like it had tried to do to Juro for Gods-only-know how long. It resisted, directed more power at him. He could feel its conduits melting under the strain, having an infinite power source but no conductor to properly convey it.

With one final blow that felt like an orgasm in his mind, he unconsciously destroyed the bird. The impact of the blow sent him reeling through space, time, and whatnot. As he tried to regain consciousness and some flicker of recognition of what he'd just done, he felt himself decompose into tiny little pieces.

Somewhere in the world, the impact was felt. A girl was sitting behind her computer when she noticed the change in the air. Elsewhere, an old woman was meditating, when she felt it she heard a voice saying:  
"The Ninth Immortal is free once more."  
Everywhere on the planet, things started to fall into place, or fall apart, depending on how one looked at it. But the one who caused it all remained a secret to everyone but a handful of people. And he was swept away into infinity.

TTTTTTT

One of the things Juro wasn't aware of, along with himself and what he'd done, was that his friends had recently rid the universe of a massive machine threat and were back in their Tower on May 5th. Apparently there were some pretty big time differences between the planets they'd visited, but nothing one couldn't override with a lightspeed engine. Things were celebrated, of course, but the festivities were dampened by one minor detail: Val-Yor, the stalwart hero they'd helped, seemed to have some prejudices for Tamaraneans. When Kai brought up the Guide to verify the reasons, it turned out to everyone that the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy not only contains many omissions, but it is also frequently inaccurate. Setting all details of racism aside, the entry on Tamaran was wrong on a lot of accounts and there were many peoples and races in the Galaxy who had good reason to hate Tamaraneans, most of which involve tax evasion (no need for spaceships if you can survive in space) and smuggling (see before and add naturally built-in energy blasters, also not liable to taxes). It was a bit disturbing for poor old Star, even after she'd saved Val-Yor's life. He departed in as friendly a fashion as he could muster, which still wasn't very. None of that has any real value to this story, however, and is merely meant as a reassuring way of situating the situation at hand.  
Night fell in the Tower, and Raven meditated on the roof.

"Still can't figure things out, Robin?" she asked. He'd tried to be quiet as he came out, but she heard him nonetheless. She knew why he was out. She knew the full reason why he didn't sleep well, but she also knew he'd only want to discuss part of it.

"There's still something I need to know. Juro's holding back something and you know what it is. Why won't you tell me, Raven?"

She didn't deny the accusation: he was right, after all. She did know something Robin didn't. He carefully approached while Raven talked.

"Do you remember the early days, Robin? Right after Starfire landed on Earth, before the Tower was built. When Tilton asked you to assemble the heroes you knew, you went around to everybody to ask about their powers and what they liked. You wanted to be sure that everybody would be fine from Day 1," Raven told it like a story, one that Robin knew all too well. He was sitting next to her now.

"When I came around to your place…you never really gave me an answer, did you? I asked you what you could do, but you never explained just what happened when you used you power…Why?"

"You wanted to know what I can do, Robin, but it's not that simple. I'm what you call a mage. Some would call me a witch, others a sorceress, but it comes down to the fact that I use magic. Do you understand that?" she kept her voice even and talked slowly, as usual.

Robin let it sink in, then replied:  
"Yes, but you haven't answered my question yet. What are you two holding back?"

Raven sighed. She'd hoped to avoid this conversation a little longer, especially considering…well, it didn't matter now. Robin wanted to know. More importantly, he deserved to know the truth. He'd put up with not knowing for long enough.  
"What I do, the magic bit of it, requires me to control certain parts of my mind. You know this, right?"

He nodded.

"But what you don't know is how far that control goes. I can shut out everything, take every trauma I have and simply remove it, if I wanted to, I could even erase my entire memory. But even with all that control, I still have emotions, instincts…that I can't remove without undoing my own humanity."

Robin could tell this was a pretty important confession for Raven, but he didn't quite understand why.

"What does this have to do with you and Juro? I mean, I've seen you two look at each other, and I'm happy for you, but…"

"Don't you get it?" she interrupted," all the control I have, all the energy that I channel through my emotions, through my body, all my lessons fall into a system. I use my spells out of tradition, because I'm familiar with them. I'm part of an order, one that had rules and regulations and a moral system that I still try maintain. But Juro is a chaos mage, Robin."

"I thought you said you were fine with it?" he was getting a bit frustrated now.

"You want to know why I'm in conflict over this. I'll tell you: you haven't seen Juro in his true form. Chaos mages only have the morals they want to maintain, they have the same amount of control as the members of my order, but no rules. They make their own rules, Robin. Everything you've seen of him so far stems from his personality overlapping with that of the character he assumed. Those powers he has are out of proportion compared to what he did for them."

"What are you saying, Raven? We've had a villain in here all this time? I thought you two liked each other?" he was grasping straws now, really. Raven let it out.

"You're a detective, Robin, and a leader. Try and keep that in mind, because if you weren't I wouldn't be telling you this. I know what he is. I've only recently worked on developing my auric vision, but I can already see your aura clearly. And the little black blotches around your neck tell me you've got serious issues. But still I think you should know. Juro is an insertion in our continuum, an improbable anomaly. He's not supposed to be in this world, maybe not in any world, but his presence and the sheer coincidence that he's learned chaos magic has had its effects. We know something is pulling all the continuums of this planet together. I know, for a fact, that Juro is off to destroy it even as we speak. Whatever is doing this would have to destroy him and others like him first and the only way to do that is to make him abide by enough rules of this Universe. That's why his chaos magic went out of control, that's why his controlled power grew so fast and that's why he became a Titan."

"But then, why didn't you just tell me? Why didn't he?"

Raven's answer would almost knock Robin right off the roof.  
"Because once this thing is destroyed, there won't be any need for him to remain in his current character. And the imbalances created by it will repair, very likely deleting him as well. There's a very real chance that he won't come back, Robin. And even if he does, he's going to be a completely different person."

TTTTTTT

Meanwhile, inside…  
Cyborg had given it a lot of thought, and he couldn't figure it out. Starfire adored Robin, but Robin for some strange reason kept backing out at the last second. He didn't know what was going through his friend's mind, but Juro did. And he'd said that Beast Boy had the answer. So now, with Starfire browsing that Galactic Guide for more errors, Kai the Kappa keeping watch, of course, he decided to hear ole' BB out. He was watching some TV-show, as usual, and thoroughly enjoying it, again as usual. Now all he had to do was broach one of the touchiest subjects ever to have crossed his way.  
On second thought, he just decided to sit back and watch the damn show. If there was such an insurmountable barrier between the two, they'd work it out themselves. No need for him to butt in. He just grabbed some chips.

"So, what are we watching?" he asked.

It turned out to be a program about mules.  
Suddenly, a lot of things became clear.

TTTTTTT

"Well, aren't you all over the continuum?" a voice asked.  
It was strange, coming back to consciousness. What had happened? In a reflex, he tried not to remember, as he knew his conscious mind might undo any acts of will. He'd…destroyed something. Good. He was pretty sure he was unable to accidentally recreate anything, so he allowed the train of thought to go further. The bird thingy. He'd wrecked it in a pocket of space and time and it was gone now. It had indeed been responsible for a lot of the weirdness in his life. But what was happening now? He tried to get his senses going, but found his perceptions slightly contradictory. On one hand he saw a kid in a car with his girlfriend next to him, only she was dead. On the other, he saw Raven fighting what looked like a black humanoid rabbit, possibly on a level of the astral, maybe the ether. He also saw Robin on his deathbed. Hang on, her deathbed. That was a she-Robin. What the bloody…oh wait, that voice. Where did that come from?

"Where are you? Keep talking, so I can find you!" he called out.

"There's no need to yell, you know. I'm right here," came the answer. It sounded like a person suffering from depression, yet it had a mechanical tone to it. Juro regained focus, and through some fuzzy processes in his mind managed to channel his energy to bring him to the source of the voice.

It brought him to an abandoned landscape, might have been a desert, might have been a rocky ravine, but in any event there wasn't enough light to see very far. It was almost as if the light tended to linger around one spot, and in that spot he saw the speaker: a battered, large-headed robot sitting down. Its colour didn't show in the light.

"You must be a chaos mage," it sounded rather dreary," can't say I'm impressed. Not that anything would impress me anymore. I've been all around the Galaxy myself. All over time, too."

"How could you see me?" Juro asked. He'd been in a layer of Improbability, out of average radar range and he assumed out of the less than average radar range as well. He'd just gone off the map, he realised. He'd taken a trip through space, time and whatnot. And now he was chatting to what looked and sounded like a manically depressed android.

"I've got a brain the size of a planet and he asks how I could see him? I calculated it, of course. I've calculated the answer to every social problem in the Universe twice now, but does anybody care? No," it moaned.

This did attract Juro's attention, though. He couldn't be sure the android was telling the truth, but if it could detect him in between space and time it might be able to shed some light on a few matters.

"Well, I'm here. I care. If you've got all the answers, let's hear it. Do you know what's happened to me and why? Oh, where are my manners, I haven't even introduced myself, I'm Juro and you are…" he tried.

"You can call me Marvin," he replied.

TTTTTTT

"But suppose everything you said turned out for the best," Robin asked," suppose he stays the way we know him long enough to finish his project. What would happen?"

"Another little point you missed, Robin; you keep assuming it's something bigger than yourself, bigger than him. You don't see the connection and you shouldn't look for it."

"Why not?" he asked, right on cue of course.

"Because control is just one aspect of my craft; the other is energy. I draw from personal reserves built up in ways you wouldn't think of. Juro uses energy as well, but from different sources and in different ways, even Mumbo Jumbo has his own way of doing it. But Juro's energy stems partly from free thoughts, the things that happen because you think about something. It's not difficult, once it's within your system of perception, but bottom line is if anyone has a conscious knowledge of what he's trying to do, the energies released would be enough to doom it. You have to understand, Robin, this whole deal started before he became a Titan, before he even got his active powers. It's not like he's summoning a demon or making our world overlap with a Hell dimension. The motives for his projects were always selfish. He got his space samurai powers because his chaos magic was being hampered with. He got his Guide because that gave him awareness of what was happening. And his last project is the only thing that might stop him from getting overwritten when the imbalances are restored. All he needs to do is something so big and massive on the Improbability chart that the higher powers can't undo it. That way, he'd survive, he'd be his normal self, and I'm curious to see how that is, and we'd all live happily ever after," she finished with that wide smile she'd put on when she helped Cyborg build the second T-car.

"You really like him, don't you?" it came out of thin air, almost literally.

"Love's a bit different for me, Robin. I don't break out in sweat, get palpitations and start to stutter when I see someone who might the love of my life. Not like you did, twice I might add."

"You mean you knew?" he asked, incredulous.

"Please, Robin. I'm the only female human being in this Tower. If you ever wanted to get married and have kids, you'd only have me as far as our team goes. I'm just glad you got over that little crush on me when you did. I also know why you and Star won't get together. I know all about it, Rob. I even know about that little key you have, taped to the bottom of the bathtub of our second bathroom. You did go to some extremes to contain yourself, didn't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he lied, very convincingly but in vain.

"Is it a CB 3000 or a homemade model with neo-titanium you're wearing?"

He gave up.  
"Homemade," he stated.

"I guess we do have a lot in common, Robin, when it comes to having to hold back. But Starfire wants to be with you. And I'm not going to find anyone else who's seen and lived things as strangely as me or Juro. So why won't you go to the one who chose you?"

"You just said it. You already know," came the reply.

"True, but you need to hear yourself say it to come to terms with it. Just say why, Robin. Don't make me poke around your head again, I will if you make me."

He took a deep breath, relaxed and just went forth and said it.

TTTTTTT

"Okay, so let me get this straight: the very creation of my soul was an anomaly caused by space/time eddies and errors in other continuums, right?"

"Right," Marvin the Manically Depressed Robot replied.

"And this thing I just wrecked was the Mark 2, meant to pull all the continuums of Earth together so it could destroy the Earth in every reality. It couldn't do it with anomalies like me around, so first it sent my chaos magic out of control, then amplified the powers I could control consciously, putting me in a different system of rules. But by dumb luck I found the thing, destroyed it, and now that it's gone and all the continuums are floating apart again, I'll die if I don't complete my project?"

"That more or less describes it. Your powers should have a bit of a boost now, and you will need to look out for holes that send you through time. But that's the gist of it. If you don't do something big fast, you'll just pop right out of the story of the Universe. Depressing, isn't it?"

"What about the girl I saw? What happens to Random? Is she Raven in a different life?"

"She's the same soul as the Raven in your continuum, but in a different stage of its development. She's basically a future life of the Raven you know. I imagine after what's just happened, the fact that the Mark 2 saw her as its owner the moment it attacked you means that she's still on your world. She'll probably kill herself in a while, given her past."

"There must be something I can do for her. If what you said is true, she's been hurled all over space/time since infancy. It's not her fault she's messed up. Can't you calculate the answer?"

"Of course, but I don't think you're going to like it."

He was met with a piercing glare from Juro. So he just fessed up.  
"Where would you normally send someone who has a troubled past, no place to go and a computer on her wrist? Keeping in mind, nowadays kids like to download dangerous stuff on those things."

"You're kidding. She's Raven in a different life. Even you don't know what'd happen if she ever became a Titan and met herself."

"I get answers like that all the time, you know," Marvin moaned," you're failing to see the most obvious solution. I'm sure she's got some instructions on Galactic weapons making in her wrist computer, so she would qualify in theory. But I never said she'd have to meet your friends."

"I see," Juro finished," but how do I get back to my space and time? I just got launched here when that thing blew up. And my space samurai powers can't teleport me home. I'll probably lose them in a few days anyway."

"Again you're failing to see the obvious lack of sense in the Universe. The whole reason you exist is because someone managed to hook up a warp engine to a generator of randomness. As a chaos mage, you can send your mind into warp and generate randomness yourself, and hook it up with your personal energy. Basically, with the Mark 2 gone, you're a walking Infinite Improbability Drive."

This cleared up a lot of things. Why his life had been filled strange coincidences, what really happened the night he put his space samurai powers to the test…and why he'd pretty much forgotten the whole experience. His memory had been tampered with as well, it turned out. What were the odds of him running into a robot with a brain the size of a planet? Now that he thought about it, could he possibly return the favour?

"Well, my circuits are going to shut down permanently soon. Can't wait for that; I'm already thirty times older than the Universe. But there's one thing I don't know yet: God's final message to his creation. I know where it is, but obviously nobody's going to give me a lift."

With that, Juro cleared his mind and let his subconscious take over. Random things began popping into his head and he poured power into it. After another 'WOP', he and Marvin were on another planet, still a battered landscape, but at least Marvin was where he needed to be. Juro bade him farewell and tried his new teleportation trick again.

This time it went a little screwy. The 'WOP' was accompanied by a 'PILO' and he suddenly found himself in the nightclub he'd just departed, as if absolutely no time had passed since. More even, when he checked the calendars hanging by the bar it turned out it was only just May 5th. Random was walking about, looking confused. He got another good look at her. Her hair was long and blond, her face looked like that of a model, her limbs were slender, but she wasn't exaggeratedly thin. What he did notice, though, was the fact that she looked only 14, instead of 20, as she had when he last saw her. Juro didn't waste time and grabbed her by the arm. He discretely pulled her along, out of the building and into an alley. It was night time now. She looked worse than confused at this point; she was completely lost in her own misery. She started sobbing when she realised everything she had was what she was wearing, and her white clothes were a little ragged from interdimensional travel.

"Listen to me, Random. Listen very carefully. Whatever has happened in your life so far doesn't matter any more, okay? It doesn't matter if you got hurled through time, space and whatnot and it doesn't even matter that your age isn't what it's supposed to be. Do you understand?" he tried to sound firm, but in a comfortable way.

She just sobbed a bit.  
"Who are you? What have you done?"

"Listen to me, Random. Is that a computer on your arm?"  
He pointed at the Flex-O-Panel on her left arm. According to Marvin, that sort of thing was fashion in the Galaxy, like how almost every girl in the Northern hemisphere had her ears pierced. Basically, Random had a surgically implanted screen that had Sub-Etha reception and, he hoped, a small computer.

"Yeah. Pretty small memory, though," she seemed resigned to whatever would happen next. He didn't know all the details, but Juro guessed she'd only called him Donny because of a past life experience she'd probably forgotten now. He also guessed, and he'd never know just how right he was on that one, that she'd been through a lot.

"Does it have any information on how to make a weapon?" he asked. This was a pretty important question, given what he was going to try.

"Well, there was one guy I met at a zero-grav party. Said he had the 'Revolutionist Recipe Book' on his computer. He uploaded it for me. He was nice, scary and weird, but nice."

"Listen. If you made one of the weapons in that Book, would anybody else be able to use it?" he kept on asking. It looked like Random was feeling a bit more confident, if a bit suspicious.

"Well, it does have instructions on how to put a DNA ID on a gun. So I guess not. Why?"

"Can you do anything out of the ordinary? Speed read, super strength, flight, anything like that?"

"Well, my dad did tell me how he managed to fly. I guess I could learn if I had the time. Why would you want to know?"

He made up his mind, right then and there. With the Mark 2 gone, he'd be in sync with this continuum until some higher power decided to erase him, but he still had time. If Random could make a gun with an Intergalactic standard, it would be superior to most of the weapons from Earth. If she could learn how to fly, if she could learn how to fight, then she could apply for the position.  
"Suppose I told you I have some friends who'd enjoy your company. They're a weird bunch by your standards, I think, but you'd probably like it with them. You can't get your old life back, whatever it was, but if things go just right, you'll have a new home. You will have to fight a lot, though. Would you accept? I know it's a big shock, but that's how it is."

She looked at him, thinking hard.  
"I don't even know you, do I? Why would you want to help me? And if I did say yes, would I have to…be with you a lot?"

"No, these friends are a little far from here. And I know it sounds weird but…I want to help you. You've got an aura around you like you've been abused your whole life. This might be a good start to a new one," Juro said, cheesy though it sounded.

"I don't know…" Random hesitated.

"There's a pretty good looking swimmer with them," he blurted out," single, too, if memory serves."

"Deal," Random said," I'll go see those friends of yours. What are they called, anyway? What are their names?"

As he took her hand and prepared to WOP again, he simply stated:  
"They are a team of heroes known as the Teen Titans East."

TTTTTTT

Juro realised he really needed to work on his 'WOP'-ping. When he landed in the regular T-Tower after dropping Random off at the East T-Tower, he learned that time had stopped. He also learned that with the influences of his space samurai powers fading a little, he couldn't fluidly contact Kai anymore. He checked a calendar hanging in the T-Tower, it said it was May 8th. Today was Raven's birthday. He felt something was wrong, and focused on that wrongness. Another random generation moment, another WOP later and he was standing on a tower with Raven.

And then he noticed someone who looked like Slade was standing there as well.  
'Oh well, I need to do some ridiculous things if I want to stay alive,' he thought,' I wonder, if I beat up Slade, would that be enough to avoid being overwritten? Only one way to find out, I guess.'

Slade, meanwhile, was speaking to Raven from an uncomfortably close distance. He was hanging over her shoulder, whispering…Raven was scared. This had to stop.

"Oh Slade…" Juro said, letting the name trail off. Even as he said it, he could feel the bits of personality that weren't really his drift off. The moral values he'd maintained as space samurai were becoming void, but he still had his full power. Now he could have some fun.

"A new one? My, my, you have been expanding your horizons, Raven. And here I thought it was that turtle creature that hid you from our sights. What do they call you, boy, who are you?"

Juro felt power rising up in him, excitement that he would face this villain, this piece of filth, not only at the top of his power but also at moment in time when nothing would stop him. No morals, no rules, no barriers. He could just beat the living daylights out of Slade if he wanted to. But for now, he'd unnerve him. Let him know how it feels.

"I am the man who walks alone on a dark and empty road. I am the one whom gods do not see and demons cannot move. You may call me Juro."

Slade focused all his attention on him now, Raven too shaken up by both Slade's words and Juro's to do any damage. It now became apparent that Slade had a mark on his head, and surprisingly, Juro knew what it was, but didn't show it.  
"And do you know who I am? Go on, be honest. What have your friends told you about me?"

A wicked grin came over Juro's face then.  
"Nothing I didn't already know. Do you recall that host androids you sent when you took over the city, that large host you sent to capture a strategic territory, that never returned?"

"So…that was you. And you were also responsible for my plan B failing, I take it?" he asked, calmly.

"Nobody messes with my classmates, except me," came the reply," and to top it off, you've scared Raven. That alone qualifies you for extinction. But first, what did you do to Kai? That turtle creature?"

"Oh, that. He tagged along when the Titans heard of a 'conspicuous person of unusual abilities' raiding a warehouse. I mistook that thing for a mage of sorts, maybe a comrade of Raven's, stuck in animal form after a spell gone wrong. But he's yours, isn't he? A servitor, perhaps? Care to negotiate a ransom? No? Didn't think so. Doesn't seem like your cup of tea. Now, Robin, he knew how to negotiate. He cooperated when he had to."

Juro had had enough of this. Time had started running again, strangely.  
"We go. Now. You're taking me to where Kai is, and then you and I will have it out. One…on one."

"Very well," Slade said. He disappeared through a black vortex, like the one Raven used from time to time. Just then, Robin came running up. Raven was still in a bit of a shock.

"I'll explain later," he told Robin, right before he wopped.

TTTTTTT

They were in a dark cave. Slade was, at any rate. The vortex was still open. He expected the new arrival to step through, but he warped himself right behind the orange and black cretin.  
"Boo," he said, to which Slade tried to swing a fist behind him, but he only hit thin air as Juro backed away just at the last second. He was sure to keep his distance, for now.

"Where is Kai?" Juro demanded. Right behind Slade, a ball of fire came floating up out of the ground containing the servitor. Normally he'd have gone mad after being magically isolated from the creature that kept his mind in balance, but seeing as now there was no need for him, Juro felt…confident. He decided to get cocky.

"So, I take it now you want to try your might against mine? An epic duel between the villain who dictated the Titans' lives and a punk kid who's turned the world upside down. Oh, wait, that's not your MO, is it? First you'll want to taunt me, see what buttons you can push, check for weaknesses…am I getting warm?"

Apparently Slade wasn't used to people being so calm around him, especially with his new power, granted by the demon Trigon. Obviously, Juro didn't know what that power was, but fact was Slade didn't know what Juro could do, either. He was the reason Trigon had been unable to monitor the movements of the Titans, and that made him a threat. He couldn't risk attacking just yet, so he did just what the kid suggested.

"You seem to know a lot about me, young Juro. Have we met before? Surely you didn't just pop up from the woodwork the night I took over the city. Perhaps that mask hides someone familiar, and you just want some petty revenge. Do you think your bravado can hide your fear? Tell me, can you stand being in my presence, alone except for the creature you're here to retrieve, or will you snap just like my old apprentices?" he came closer as he said it, and doing that he didn't notice Kai was turning in his cage of fire, limbs retracted into his shell. He was turning, then slowly spinning.

"You're grasping at straws," Juro retorted," You're desperate to find some connection between me and what you know, but you won't. I'm not some super-teen who wants revenge for getting dumped in toxic waste. I'm not a spectre of your past, but you are one of mine. And moreover, Slade, I'm not as easy to break as the other Titans."

There were about five steps between him and Slade now. They both knew what was going to happen; they'd be at three inches from each other, and then whoever was faster would draw first blood. After the first punch had landed, they'd discard the whole conversation and fight to the death. And Slade, being immortal for the time being, was fairly confident about his chances.

"Oh really? And why's that?" he asked, taking another half step. He summoned a little flame to his hands.

"Because I know what I'm like. I know that my personality, right now, is one that doesn't have to listen to morals. I'm not too dissimilar from you in that regard, but truth be told, I take it to new levels. You may think you're the baddest one of them all, but I've had some pretty sick and twisted ideas myself. I just don't act on all of them, that's all," by now Slade was two steps away," and I'm also a bit smarter than you, as it turns out," and Kai was spinning in his flaming cage like a Beyblade.

Slade froze. He kept his eye on the kid, and sent a mental message to his master to unleash a fire demon horde.

He was startled to find it didn't come.

"Let's go over the facts, shall we?" Juro cheerfully said," you know for a fact that I can block your demon master from seeing me, yet you failed to calculate the possibility that I can also block you from getting reinforcements. You know I am a mage, yet you tried to trap me before realising just what you were dealing with. And to top it off, you know for a fact that the creature behind you is my servitor, yet you didn't consider the possibility that he could actually fight!"

Things went really quick from that point on. Slade turned back just in time to see Kai break free from his cell, but before he could launch a fireball or a dark ribbon he was caught in Juro's telekinetic hold. He turned back to face the kid with a burst of strength, just as Kai's foot touched the ground with a soft yet deafening 'tap'. Juro put him in another hold, focusing on keeping his legs and arms immobile as Kai launched himself head-first at the now trapped villain. Normally he'd have broken out again after half a second, but in a quarter of a second he felt his spine shatter under the impact of a skull bash. While his body automatically repaired itself, Kai kept hammering, slamming his claws into Slade, breaking ribs, arms, legs, skull… It all healed after a short time, but under the onslaught he couldn't summon more power to break free.

Whoever this was, he'd underestimated him. Badly.

"Now, Slade, let's get some minor details out of the way, shall we? You are down for the count. Kai and I can keep this treatment up all night. So don't think about sitting it out. Secondly, I want you to know that even though you never actually aimed anything at me, I hold you in the utmost contempt. You use people and believe it or not, you've been used. Your actions contributed to me almost being annihilated, and I'm not even going to mention the hardships you caused to the people I care about. My point is, Slade, I won't hesitate to kill you when the opportunity arises. I will give you pain like none you have ever felt and I won't back down for the sake of morality. There will be no judges, no jury, and no jail should it ever come to just you and me. So if I were you, I'd pray that you don't meet me again."

Slade was still getting pummelled, a bone broken every two seconds. Juro walked around him, to his back, while Slade tried to find a name. Anything he could connect with would suffice, if only he knew who this was.  
"Davy? X23? Daniel? Johnny? Not…Jericho?"

Juro ignored him. He summoned his lightsaber. Given the circumstances, this would probably be the last time he could use it. He leaned in close to Slade's ear.  
"Your master will ask what happened. You will tell him this:  
'Not quite a Titan, nor the one who fell,  
but challenge me and you go straight to Hell.'

And with that, he severed Slade's head from his torso. He disappeared in a black void. He'd probably be back in a week or so. Regenerating nerves is a little trickier than your average fracture.  
They wopped back to the Tower. Robin could tell something was different. Juro was still shifting between space samurai mentality and his regular old self, and already he felt plagued by guilt that he'd struck a man down who'd been unable to defend himself. It just came with the package. However, now that he was like this, he knew what he had to do. He had both the powers he'd grown used to, and the ones he would have had if it hadn't been for the Mark 2. He had to do this now, before his mind shifted back to a state where nothing was forbidden. Raven had recovered from her experience with Slade, and she saw the determination. It had to be now.

"Guys, I know this is going to be weird, and I don't like it any more than you do, but I'm going to have to go through with it," Juro said.

"I'm going to have to complete the Lucky Seven Project right now."

End of Chapter 16.

* * *

Well, my dear readers, only a little while now and everything will be cleared up. Review to tell me what you thought of this chapter, please. Also, keep in mind that there are different times at each little segment of this chapter. If you didn't understand what Raven and Robin were talking about…you should be at least sixteen to know. I suggest looking it up on Wikipedia, that's where I got the idea myself. And as for the mules…well…if you don't see the connection, I'll spell it out in the next chapter, so don't worry. 


	17. What is normal?

Author's notes: I realise I have virtually no reason for doing what I'm about to do, but I'll do it anyway. I may not have a lot of readers, but that doesn't mean I can't keep 'em in suspense a little while longer. I'd also like to point out that while I do enjoy a good tragedy now and again, I'm just a sucker for happy endings. And finally, Juro's last message to Slade was a little something I thought of when I heard Lordi, the guys from Finland who won the Euro Vision with a record-breaking score. I REALLY like that song, so I gave it a nod. Also, I'd like to point out that only Raven really knows what the Project is about. My intention was to make something that doesn't focus on how much power is put into an act of magic; that's what all the modern media tends to focus on. My aim was to write about an act of magic that depended on focus and psychic censors, which tends to get ignored. Bottom line is; everytime you just wish for something, part of you wishes it doesn't happen, and that part is stronger. You need to be able to shut that off or reach vacuity to do an act of magic. That's the general description of chaos magic, and more specifically what Juro will be doing. If anyone had a conscious knowledge of it, their psychic censors could send it all haywire. Hope that clears things up.

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Moreover, this story is and has always been in line with the novel from HHG, not the movie. So if you have no clue who Random Frequent Flyer Dent is and what the heck she's doing in this story, that's probably because you've only seen the movie. If you haven't read the novel, this may contain one or two spoilers. I also don't own Spiderman or the plot device used in Identity Crisis. Nagas are part human, part snake women in my version of it (there are others who are all snake and have multiple heads, I think), and if memory serves usually marine creatures. They come from Indian folklore.

* * *

Chapter 17: What is normal?  
Of course, at this point in time the reader may feel slightly confused. If you think you have it bad reading the story, try putting yourself in the position of the people who are actually in the story. So far, they have had to deal with shifting realities, time travel, inter-species attraction, and the emotional difficulties entailed by the simple lack of capacity to lose oneself. Moreover, Juro himself seems to have more secrets and skeletons in his closet than the entire collection of American presidents and ministers throughout history. The reason for this, of course, is the fact that he wasn't supposed to be around in the first place, and to some people that had to be remedied, putting him in some compromising and often embarrassing situations. So right now the only thing that might save him was a project he'd worked towards for months without even knowing what it was until recently. 

Sadly, the details of it will not be discussed in this chapter. Instead it seems more sensible to explain the other things that happened in between the time wop Juro took from the East T-Tower to the Jump T-Tower. Attentive readers will have noticed that there is a three-day time gap between the launch and landing, and that when we last left off the Titans East, they were given a new female member. Well, more like Juro dropped her on their porch with a note; he did need to make up for lost time after his long dialogues with Marvin and Random, which is pretty ridiculous considering three days passed between the WOP launch and landing. In any event, this found a young girl without a home and no real future prospects to speak of on the doorstep of the Titans East.

And naturally, their seaside doorstep quickly sounded the alarm and pointed half a dozen laser guns at her head. She carefully put her hands up, and waited for the final shot to put her out of her misery. She was a little bummed at looking death in the eye after getting a sparkle of hope, but really, things hadn't been going her way since…well, ever.

Two little guys came running in the seaside entry hall, saw Random standing there, then ran back to fetch some company. They were really fast, Random noted. When they came back, they brought with them a young black girl with what looked like insect wings on her back; as well as one guy with a bow and quiver, and lastly the swimmer in a unitard.

He did look cute. But right now she had to introduce herself.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the flying girl asked, while the two little ones, they had to be twins, went to push a button that switched off the alarm. The guns stayed trained on Random, though.

"Uh, I'm Random Dent, and I'm here to join. I got a note from a guy who said he's a friend."  
She held it up, and the twins raced past her to grab it. These guys were a little paranoid, apparently. After reading the note, they huddled together. She couldn't hear the conversation, but she had a pretty good guess about what it was.

"What do you think?" one probably asked.  
"She looks nice," another would reply.  
"The note looks genuine, but it could easily be a trap," yet another would say.  
That was probably the gist of it, and it would depend on what the last answer was if she could stay or go. Not that she could go anywhere.  
She felt something funny in her head, then the guy in the unitard broke the huddle and said:  
"I say, give her a chance. If Juro says she's capable, I'm sure she can do something."

"Everyone who votes for a trial period say: 'Aye,'" the insect girl called.

To Random's surprise, they all answered 'aye'. She was in, for now. Now came the tricky part; what she could do, exactly. When she told them about the weapons guide she had on her wrist computer, they showed her to their workshop, which was apparently also the home of a fish boy technician. They were pretty careful about letting her use their equipment. She just followed the instructions on her Flex-O-Panel. Said instructions, by the way, contained information that can be likened to Earth's 'Anarchist Cookbook', at least the original version, as later versions were printed with sole intention of getting terrorists to blow themselves up. But luckily, Random's information proved legit and she was indeed constructing a perfectly safe, if unusual, weapon. She wasn't used to people looking at her that closely, but they made up for it by talking, gentler than usual. They were particularly interested in how and why she'd ended up there. So she just explained. She was born on a spaceship going from one place to the other, her mother was a reporter who travelled through space and time for her job, it all basically came down to the fact that she didn't have a home in neither space nor time, never had one to begin with: in her world, the Earth was destroyed and her mother and father were the only two homo sapiens left. To top it off, she'd been conceived through a sperm bank, so she tended to be really frustrated, knowing that she had no home and nobody of the same species other than her parents. Then when she'd had to live with her father on a backwater planet, the Mark 2 had passed her way, and she'd finally had the chance to see her home world, even if it was a parallel version of it. But that hadn't worked out as well as she'd hoped either…

When one of the twins asked about her wrist panel, she just talked about that, too. She liked that; usually she was throwing a fit, or whatever else she could throw, as there wasn't much else she could do being so frustrated all the time. But now, things felt different. She was finally on the right planet, she could explain herself, and people actually listened.  
"No, that's no computer language. That's just Galacticspeak. How can you not be able to read Galacticspeak?" she told him. Plus, that was his name. The other was Minus. She finished putting on the DNA ID on her new anti-gravity gun when the unitard guy, Aqualad they called him, came running back in. Apparently, the dolphins were back, whatever dolphins were.

So now that she had a weapon, all she'd have to do was test it. The fish boy had been careful to note any dangerous components she'd put in the thing, and found none, so they had no need to worry. Random's gun looked like a long tube with a spring around it and a fork attached to it. Depending on the situation and how much power she needed, she could make it a one-handed pistol or a two-handed rifle. She went with the double-handed grip for the test. The kid with the bow and quiver, they called him Speedy, would fire an arrow and she'd have to intercept it. If her gun worked, then she had a chance. From there, she could start training, learn how to fight, the works. If not, she'd fall on her back right into the sea, as she now realised her back was standing towards the water, and at a pretty good height from it, too.

Two things became readily apparent to Random when Speedy fired his arrow. For one thing, her gun worked, and it did deflect the arrow, catching it in an anti-grav field. For another, it had a little recoil she didn't know of. It sent her careening towards the water, and in mid fall it suddenly dawned on her that she'd never actually been in water before. Every time in her life when she'd wanted to clean herself, she'd taken a sonic shower, and she'd never actually felt water on her skin. She was scared of it, anyway, just as she wasn't used to the fact that the sun kept following her, or the moon. She didn't feel panicky now, though. She actually looked forward to hitting water for the first time in her life. All this she realised with a shock.

Strangely enough, even after some time had passed, she still didn't feel the water on her skin. She'd actually managed to hover over the surface!  
'Guess dad was right: if you're too distracted to think about falling, you just miss the ground, or whatever you're landing on,' she thought. With that out of the way, she managed to fly back to where she'd fallen off. The Titans East were moderately impressed.

"Oh, great," the twins said," another trigger happy flying chick."

Random couldn't help laughing at that...to which the other flying 'chick' rammed the twins' heads in. Bumblebee was not one to mock. Speedy, however, had just realised a little flaw in Random's life story.

"If you've never been to any Earth except this one, and your mother only spoke English and Galactic, how is it you understand Spanish?"

Random was a little confused there.  
"Spanish? I wouldn't know; I've got a Babel Fish in my head. Like a universal translator, but only if you've got brain waves to translate."

Now Aqualad joined in.  
"The Babel Fish? But that's just an Atlantean myth. Even if they were real, they're extinct now."

"Yeah, but there's a breeding pool for them on Centauri Beta, somewhere in a time gap, I think. Anyway, it means every language is the same to me."

They were all a little quiet after that. Bumblebee was the first to break the silence.  
"I'm sorry if we seem a little…paranoid, but you have to understand, we're heroes. We've already been infiltrated once, and our friends in Jump City have had some bad experiences with new members. The guy you met was transferred to them at the mayor's orders, at least in his reality, and things have gotten a bit messed up with him. And before that, they were betrayed by someone they'd taken in. Besides, you have to admit, you're not exactly a Wonder Girl."

"I could learn," Random replied," where else would you send me?"

"I think I know a way to make sure that Babel Fish is genuine," Aqualad stated," you can put a genetically engineered fish in your ear, you can learn Spanish, but there's no way you could know the Atlantean language," he finished by saying something that sounded like a series of clicks to the other Titans, but to Random it sounded like just what she wanted to hear.

"I think you'd do fine," she replied. That alone made Aqualad turn red all over his face, which gave a nice contrast with his black eyes. When the others wanted to know what he'd asked, he just said:  
"The hardest phrase in the Atlantean language."

With all their suspicions put to rest and some idea of what Random could contribute to the group, the Titans East thought it was time to seek out the one known as 'The Costume Maker'. Random was given some normal clothes to put on, Bumblebee put on a civilian outfit that hid her wings and took Random for a drive in a jet-powered car. They were headed to New York, to see the leading expert on superhero outfits.

TTTTTTT

Robin was alone. He was taking a shower after a long workout. This was the only time in the day where he took off the mask. He got out for a second, reached down to fetch his little key, and got back in, thinking. Suppose he gave Starfire the key. Suppose he just unlocked himself permanently and forgot the whole thing. That chastity belt may have been a decent way to control himself, but all in all, keeping things bottled up was a sure way of causing trouble. He'd bottled up his anger toward Slade, only to come out as an obsession or when he squared off with him in a fight. And now that he knew the truth about Star, he'd bottled up his feelings for her as well. He wanted to be with her, feel her arms around him, and those warm lips…their first kiss had been one out of necessity, so she could learn the language, but he'd enjoyed it nonetheless. And her body temperature was a few degrees hotter than his, which only tempted him further. So warm, so comfortable…and yet, he couldn't allow himself to give in. He let the water flow down on him. He kept repeating it to himself, over and over, why he couldn't go through with it.

'She deserves someone for life. She deserves to have a family. And God, she'd be a great mother. But I can't give her that. She's a different species. Even if we start dating seriously, even if things work out, even if we get married…I can't give her the life she deserves. Even if by some strange coincidence we were able to have children together, they would be hybrids. They'd be sterile, and there's no telling what genetic deficiencies they might have.'  
He could not, would not, put Starfire through that.  
But what was he putting her through now?

TTTTTTT

New York City.  
The Big Apple.  
Random had never seen anything quite like it. She was starting to love this side of her home planet. She might actually belong here. She might fit in. She could learn how to drive a car, eventually, she could learn these tacky Earth dances Bumblebee was telling her about, and she couldn't wait to go shopping on the Steel City credit card.  
A new life, new friends, a new home…and let's not forget a new wardrobe.

Apparently the Costume Maker lived somewhere in the suburbs of New York, in an old-looking place, but a nice one, nonetheless. Bumblebee shrank down to the size of a gnat ('Didn't think she could do that,' Random thought), freed her wings and flew in through a window. After a while, she came back out and called Random to come in. They went straight up to the bedroom. It turned out the Costume Maker was a red-haired woman, a former model who was married to five of the heroes in New York. Random didn't bother asking to explain, but Bumblebee did anyway.  
"Her husband's wanted for murder in one of his identities. So he's got four other costumes to still be a hero and prove he's innocent."

"And while Tiger's out doing what he does best, I design costumes. I already did three of them for him, and he does have a few connections, so now I've got a new hobby. Take off your clothes, please, I need to take your measurements," the redhead replied.  
Oh well, seeing as it was just to take measurements, and the curtains were closed, she stripped down to her underwear. She did realise her own clothes were in really bad shape, and she didn't have the first clue of how to make a hero's outfit for herself, so she really needed to do this. It was a strange sensation to feel somebody that close, especially when she only wearing her underwear. It didn't matter, though; it was for a good cause, and Bumblebee and the Costume Maker, she said her name was MJ, tried to make her feel as comfortable as possible. Not too comfortable, mind you, none of them really swung that way.  
"So, Random, huh? Is that short for something?" Bee asked. Even though she'd explained her life story in short, there were still a few things Bumblebee didn't know.

"Random Frequent Flyer Dent, that's my full name," she said as MJ took her leg measurements. Random couldn't help but wonder, with all these new things going for her, a remotely normal life, if maybe she could have a boyfriend as well. That Aqualad guy seemed nice enough. And he was from a different world, too…sort of. While she was thinking that, Bee was browsing through a notebook of MJ's, with pictures in it of other female superheroes and some drawings with ideas she hadn't worked out yet.

"And what can you do, Random?" MJ asked, taking her collar size now.

"I can fly, and I've got an anti-gravity gun," she replied.

"Well, it'll be hard to find an alias for you, then," MJ said. True, Random hadn't given that much thought. In all those superhero shows she'd seen everybody had a secret identity and a superhero alias. What was she going to call herself?

"Why not just 'Random'?" Bumblebee asked, and when she looked into the magazine again, she exclaimed," Hey! How about this? This would look great on you!"

She showed her the drawing. The mask had semi-transparent lenses that looked white on the outside but would allow her to see through. It only covered her eyes and would let her hair flow naturally. There was a whole stack of those lenses in the back anyway, so she could even pick the model. The rest of the costume was basically a white unitard with black markings she recognised as a Brownian motion, in other words, lines chosen at random. The boots were all black, but the gloves also had lines on them. Of course, the pattern on the body only looked random, because the black lines would contour around the curves of her body, and probably give rise some tricks of the eye, making her limbs look longer than they really were, her belly even flatter than it already was, and her breasts…well…she wouldn't mind wearing it, that's for sure. She decided to go with that one. It did give her one slightly scary prospect, though: she was used to wearing clumsy spacesuits and breathing apparatus all the time and now she'd spend most of her time wearing something that looked so…tight.  
It didn't take long for the costume to be made, and when she put it on, she felt ecstatic. The way she felt it cling to her body, the way those lines would capture the eye when she moved…if this wasn't the kind of life she should have had from the start, it was sure something she could come to terms with.

"I'll take it," she said.

When they got back, Bumblebee was overjoyed as well. Finally there was another girl in their Tower. Finally there was somebody else the guys could tease with tasteless jokes. And when she showed Random to her room, she made sure Aqualad's wasn't too far. It was about time that Atlantean Popsicle found somebody. Speedy and the twins weren't much of a problem in that regard; they had their hangouts and haunts, but Aqualad had always been a loner. Even Tramm didn't know the whole deal.  
Did he not, to put it crudely, want to fuck anybody? At all? Or maybe he just had a mermaid girlfriend he didn't want anyone to know about? In any event, she didn't know what Aqualad had asked her in his native tongue, but it was probably the start of a beautiful friendship, if not more.

She didn't waste any more time thinking about it. She made a money transfer to the Swiss bank account the city had arranged for the Parker family. MJ was pretty popular in Steel City, which couldn't be said of her husband, strangely. She also put a call to the mayor, got the paperwork in order, sent another order for Random's costume to duplicated a few times (one always needed a spare outfit in their business) and she'd take her new friend out shopping the very next day.

She did idly wonder, though, how exactly it was that Juro had thought about bringing her here. She stopped that train of thought as well. Somebody who popped in and out of the continuum probably had different motives, and she really didn't want to think about any more weirdness today.

TTTTTTT

Raven knocked on the door to Juro's room that night. Kai opened up. It looked like he was working on something, writing a few things down with…was that a feather?

"Ah, Raven, to what do I owe the honour?" he asked as she came in.

"You're Juro's servitor, right? You're created by him, you have a connection, but your intelligence is separate from him, yes?"

"Of course, you know that, don't you?" he just went back to writing. It looked Chinese, and the book he was writing in looked really old.

"What are the odds of him making it alive?" she blurted out.

He just kept writing, calm as a Hindu cow.  
"Not very real. First he'd have to stop something he doesn't know, then survive the recoil of it, and after that I'd say he'd have a few days to go before he blinks out permanently. Unless he succeeds, of course. If his actions become so important they cannot be undone, then neither can he."

"He knew all along, didn't he? That this was going to happen, that it would turn out the way it did?" the gothic asked.

"Well, no. You see, this thing, whatever it is, had to start operating at a set moment in time. In other words, there was a period of change, albeit a small one, that Juro's environs noticed. There was a set moment in time, and things could only be twisted toward a result, not caused on their own accord. I'm not sure how it happened; it was before I came into the picture, but I believe there were certain situations that were turned into…well, the means of putting him into a box, if you will. He had to subject to certain rules before he could be permanently erased, but of course, once the higher powers get a grip on him, it won't be long before he gets overwritten. I don't think he knew what he'd have to do. More like, he felt it in his gut and things have steered him towards it since."

That answer was enough for her. If he did manage to come back, she'd go through with her plans. If not, she wouldn't even remember knowing him. It didn't really matter, then.  
"What are you writing, anyway?" she asked the turtle.

"A little something Will suggested. In case the project does work, we need to plan ahead and make sure what happens afterwards turns out for the best," his beak showed a tiniest trace of a smile as Raven leaned in to look. She didn't let the letters and pictures go too far into her conscious mind, but she knew what it said.

She had to admit, she hadn't thought of it. Only recently did she learn how to see auras, and it had to be said: if she had done it sooner, a lot of things would have been cleared up long ago. As it was, she was just glad at how things were looking now. In the Tower, things were looking up.

But she did have her birthday coming up in two days. That thought frightened her. But at least things were looking better on this end.

For now.

TTTTTTT

Random and Aqualad were in her room, and she was admiring herself in the mirror as he sat on her bed. He was told to brief her on the next day, but she seemed to ignore him as she revelled in her new outfit, not that he could blame her. She really seemed to like the look and feel of it all. Those black lines really did make it look like her limbs were longer, and her boots and gloves felt great, she cooed. So slick…it would look even better once she put the obligatory body armour on under it. Bumblebee still had a few from her days at HIVE, and Random would probably need some protection, especially early on. The thought of it distracted him. The sight of her even more. He just went on with the briefing.

"So, you're one of us now. You'll start combat training first thing tomorrow, after fitting your additional armour," Aqualad said.

"Did you really mean to ask what you did?" she pretended she hadn't heard him," or was it just a test?"

He felt his heart racing. She had her back to him, and the supposedly randomised patterns on her back swirled every time she took a different pose. It confused him a lot. He didn't answer her. He didn't dare. In his days as a solo hero, he'd resisted the call of sirens, nagas and a few aquatic temptresses human literature didn't know about, simply because nobody ever walked away from them. But for the first time in his life, he felt genuinely hypnotised and found he actually liked it. What was he to do now? More importantly, what was she going to do when she realised it?

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," she turned around, and Aqualad still found it hard to talk," and what about your powers? You can control water, you're strong and you can poke around people's heads, right?" she stepped really close to him now," and did you poke in mine when I came here today?"

"Well, I had to make sure you weren't lying," he blurted out as a defence," I mean, you could have claimed anything about your past and we'd have no way to verify it. We can't exactly check your birth certificate, now can we?"

She sat down next to him. All of a sudden, he found it hard to move as well. That seriously startled him; polar waters he cut through like a rocket, but with Random sitting at the opposite end of the bed he froze up. She noticed it, too.

"So, now that you know I wasn't lying about my past, care to tell me yours? Bee says you're from Atlantis."

They locked eyes, and with that, the alleged Atlantean Popsicle told his full life story, for the first time, to anyone. He knew he couldn't have refused. He knew where this would lead. She'd lay herself down and fall asleep in his arms or on his lap, and he'd be too scared to wake her to let her go. She would, in time, come to like being with him, and he'd come to like being with her. He couldn't wait to show her the rest of her new home, the planet that should have been her home from the beginning. He couldn't wait to see her fight, in that tight, almost hypnotic costume. He imagined this was what surface dwellers meant when they spoke of 'Love at first sight'. It felt really good.

In a strange and inexplicable turn of events, things had turned out better than all right.

* * *

So, yeah, I probably won't be able to post the next chapter before I head to France. I just felt that Random deserved a happy end, and Aqualad could do with some attention. It's cruel of me, I guess, but let's face it: you all saw it coming. You knew I'd delay it for at least one more chapter. So review to tell me what you think of this new coupling. I'm particularly curious to hear the opinions of HHG fans. Because come on, that ending was just plain depressing. 


	18. Lucky Seven Project completed

Author's notes: Obviously, this is going to be a bit of a disappointment. I've tried my best to hype it all up, and now the surprise is over. I can't say I'd blame you for giving this a bad review, but first I'd like to repeat a few details. One: the purpose of this fic was to bring things you often see in fiction, fan or otherwise, and put them in a slightly different perspective. Everybody knows magic, everybody has some notion of how TK works, but not too many people know how chaos magic would work in fiction. Secondly: if you've read my profile, then you'd know I very often change my mind. This is not the case for this chapter. The main part of it is as I saw it should be. Thirdly: I'm still trying to convey some message here. The thing with the mirrors and parasites is in part seen as occult truth in some circles, and I find that it goes nicely with Teen Titans. Go ahead, see some episodes again and tell me I'm wrong. Tell me these things are a complete coincidence. I dare you. 

Disclaimer: I own not the Teen Titans, the concepts of chaos magic, and the whole Lucky Seven Project as it is executed relies on statements made in Scribe 27's Arcane Lore. Or rather, on an interpretation thereof, and I believe it's actually a wrong one at that, but hey, it's fiction. Also, the first few phrases were inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, master of horror.

Chapter 18: Lucky Seven Project completed

_"The world as we see it is not what we should see, but what we allow ourselves to see. In actuality, we only see a small portion of the reality we think we live in. This is in fact a tool necessary for human survival, for to see infinity as a whole would be to die of incomprehension. This does not mean, however, that we are doomed to blindness. A human being, with proper practice, can develop the ability to see what is beyond and between our worlds, to glance at the creatures our thoughts and actions attract and create. This is a frightening power, and those who have it choose to remain silent on the subject, for their visions ultimately lead to a new idea of the world, one that no normal layman can ever truly comprehend."_

Excerpt from the Romanomicon

TTTTTTT

Juro and Kai were standing in the cave. Before them stood…a relic. Juro couldn't allow himself to think about it in any other way. Chaos magic can stand or fall depending on how well one's mind is focused, and Juro would need his full focus for this. He could only think of it as an 'it'; not a magical source of power, not some symbol of a tragedy that should never have happened, just an 'it'. And 'it' was covered in parasites. His auric vision picked up on them, writhing along the paths where they could drain energy, keeping 'it' from ever recovering. Him and Kai picked 'it' up, careful not to let any of the creepy buggers get on them. Juro needed to be clean, his energies cleansed.

Meanwhile, Raven arranged the room he would use for the ritual. It had to be a room with a high energy level: one that wouldn't allow any negative outside influences to interfere. So she used mirrors, and put a bucket of salt water next to what she supposed would have to serve as the altar. She didn't think about the message Slade had given her for her birthday; this was more important for the moment. This would determine whether or not Juro would be deleted from history. The walls were lined up with mirrors, the door also, and while she couldn't cover quite everything in the room, it did create a suitable atmosphere for their purpose. Raven gave Juro the call when she was finished. He wopped in right after and sent Kai outside. This required his complete and undivided attention. The other Titans were gathered in the main room, wondering and worrying, frustrated at the fact that they wouldn't be let in on anything until it was done.

TTTTTTT

Juro put 'it' on the table. The subtle energies of the parasites shifted as the influence caused by the mirrors scared them off. Well, the small ones left, anyway. To the untrained eye, it looked like nothing was amiss, but if one were to venture closer and put a hand on the item, one would feel something was wrong. If one also happened to have a developed auric sight, one would see a large collection of oversized leeches and snakes sucking themselves full, at an artery that seemed to bleed forever, yet never be given the chance to close.  
But he was going to close it. He had to. Juro concentrated his energy in his hands. He focused on a bright light, keeping his eyes closed lest they elicit some response from his brain, and sent the light into his hands. Just seeing it wasn't enough; he had to feel it. Visualising was all nice and well for the little kids who wanted to act like a TV hero, but the real deal required energy, concentration and attention to the finer details. He had to feel the energies burning, searing, so when he finally moved to touch one of the larger worms it gave a small shriek and instantly let go.  
He quickly plunged it into the salt water, which in his experience had turned out to work much like sulphuric acid works on humans. The other leeches noticed his presence, now, though, and gripped tighter. Juro decided he'd have to sit astride 'it' and blindfold himself for full concentration. He increased the power in his hands and gripped another etheric creature, this time where he felt its mouth should have been. It pulled hard, and Juro knew that he wouldn't be able to do this without causing serious damage to 'it's' energy channels. When 'it' would function again, 'it' would be damaged, but he knew that would heal in time…

'Don't get distracted', he told himself,' this is just the means to an end, the end being my survival.'

Another parasite fell, then another…the process was difficult and long, but eventually it was over. Then came the hard part; some of the energy channels, no longer drained, were starting to flow normally again. 'It' was starting to function again, but he could not allow that. Not yet. There was still a control device that fed off of its vital essences, if it triggered now it would surely undo all his hard work.  
He felt a struggle; 'it' had regained some intelligence, some awareness, and was now fighting this intrusion. Juro fought to keep it under control. He pinned it down, in his mind. Images started flowing through him, emotions that weren't his but were still inside this container. He moved them aside, and used brute mental force to finally get it down. He felt anxiety flow away from it, an unspeakable fear and outrage at this treatment. He would have pitied 'it', if the circumstances had allowed it.  
His work wasn't over yet. He slowly went to the area where the control device was weakest: straight at the top. He let some energy of his flow into the area, just enough to get a small response, not enough to re-activate the device. He spread out his senses to just this spot, to see at a molecular level where the limit was between device and 'it'. Once he had a clear image, he used his telekinesis to slowly ease out the device, one micron at a time. After what may have been five minutes or an hour, it gave way entirely. Juro dropped that piece of the device to the floor. He went to the other side of the top of 'it', then did the same. It was a slow, draining process, but he couldn't let that hold him. This was just the beginning.  
He went to the middle of the thing, the second quarter of its physical shell, which contained the receiver for the device. Of course, there was no more signal to receive, which was why the device would destroy its carrier if it should return to normal. He tried to do what had before, but this was more difficult; there were small, tiny little wires that led from the surface through another piece of the device straight into vital components of 'it', meaning he had to be careful when he fed this piece energy, lest it try and break free again, and doubly careful removing the wires. He worked slowly, trying his best to keep his mind focused on the task…

TTTTTTT

Meanwhile, in the main room…

"So, tell me again why he's been so secretive about all this?" BB asked.

"Because it's a complicated task and if you knew," Raven calmly replied," you'd trigger a butterfly effect that causes it to blow up in his face."

"And why did he let you know?" Cyborg now asked.

"Because I can control my thoughts enough to keep them in. I don't make any ripples with my thoughts. You have to understand, this whole thing is beyond our vision. I probably would've found out sooner if I'd developed my auric vision."

"And what do auras have anything to do with it?" Robin now asked, changing the subject and the channel. He really didn't need a nature documentary right now.

"One of the first things I learned in Azarath was that one's thoughts help shape one's reality. When you think, certain processes happen, energies shift, that can influence your environment. Eventually, if you let some thoughts linger, they can take on a life of their own. It happens all the time with writers and actors who start to live their parts too vividly. It's what happened to Juro when he was stuck as a space samurai."

"But friend Raven, should we not be thinking happy thoughts to aid the ritual?" Starfire now joined in.

"No," it came sternly," you mustn't. You're not trained to handle this sort of thing. You still have voices in your head that tell you what you like or dislike, and the same voices tell you what's impossible and what's not. If you were to focus on it, your inner censor would simply muck things up. I've learned to silence it, so has he, but fact is, this just isn't your department. Never was, even. You don't know about astral parasites, energy channels, or layers of reality. There are things that feed on base emotions, that lure people into traps for life and wallow in their despair. If you could see them the way me and Juro could, you'd learn to fear them. I only heard of them as the boogymen, something that every witch could protect herself against if she controlled herself and regularly cleansed herself. I never learned how to get them off other people, mostly because I'd never need to. But now, I'm starting to think I could've been of more use if I had learned sooner. You can't imagine how these things affect you, even now."

They were really freaking out right about now. They were under the impression that their new friend had rigged the place so absolutely no outside spirit influence could reach them.

"They're too small to guard against with your average warding spells," Raven continued," Energy disruptors get rid of them, though. Juro's darts are like bullets to these things, water forms a bit of a barrier, but placid salt water is like acid. Really, guys, once this is over you might consider cleansing yourselves. They're harder to get rid of when they've latched on for long, and they can really drain you in time. They can lead to suicidal tendencies, loss of appetite, but most commonly obsession," Robin was the one to really glare at her at that," and I'm sorry for not bringing this up before. It's just that nobody ever taught me, besides the things I could do for myself. And Malchior couldn't risk me seeing him for what he was. So…now you know. If anything's been really bothering you, if you think you're failing yourself, don't do anything stupid before you've cleansed. Trust me, you'll feel a lot better. They tend to go for the neck, so start there."  
There followed a silence. Then they went back to the original subject.

"So…" BB tried," Magic Butterfly effect, huh?"

TTTTTTT

By now he was removing the last critical piece, the one on the lower half. Once this was out of the way, he could let the energy flow almost normally all around. The last one had been really tricky, not in the least because it was wrapped around the shell. This one also had its complications; it had a prod-shaped container on either side containing some dead matter. He had to be careful not to feed that any energy, as that would simply result in overheating inanimate matter. He let energy flow through this part again, and again it resisted his grip. It was feverish this time, like a wild animal thrashing about, trying to get the parts that fanned out from the centre to respond, but that would still trigger this piece of the containment device, and one piece was enough. Besides, there were still some capacitors he had to remove as well; those could kill too. He gripped it again with his mind, lulling the primal panic that cried for release. He didn't let himself hear the protests, he didn't let the voice carry its outrage, sorrow and fear to his heart. It never even got past his audio senses.  
He just pushed it down and forced it to stay there, and while he did that he put a sort of soft lock on the areas around the top. Now that energy was flowing more or less freely in the central area, he could deny the top the power it needed to break free, to even realise it could. He steeled himself now. It would have been too easy to lose focus at this point and ruin everything. When he was sure he was in control, he reached out, and again he let the device release one microscopic bit at a time. When that was over, he pulled it off; this one was also wrapped all around.  
Okay, so most of the vital parts had been removed. Now the capacitors. The first two, the largest, were on either side of the top. These weren't connected directly to 'it', but he ignored the reason why. Later he would realise that it was simply because Slade did not want any electric current accidentally running straight through 'it'. These he removed by severing the connection with the last part of the device; the power-gathering bit, which covered most of 'it's' surface. These went off easily, for which he was thankful, as did the ones on 'it's' upper and lower appendages.

'Thank the gods,' he thought. The last bit was easy. The parts meant for gathering power weren't connected on a microscopic level, which meant he just pull these off like a band-aid. As he did it, he let energy flow through the whole thing.

When he pulled of one piece around the centre, a gust of toxic gas entered the room. Juro caught it in a telekinetic bubble before it could any damage, and wopped it into outer space.  
'Cute, Slade, real cute,' he thought. It was just like him to put one final booby trap that only triggered when all other things were spent.

His work was done. He stepped off of 'it', and restrained himself to keep on the blindfold. He got out and sent a message to Kai, who relayed it to Raven.

"It's done."

As he slumped to the floor, he let his mind go back to normal. Raven went in carrying some clothes. He'd done it. He even remembered now why it had to be like this…

It had happened the day Slade had taken over the city, and somehow dispensed of the Teen Titans. Will knew everyone had to evacuate, but there was one problem; one of his friends happened to live at a very strategic point in the city; an enormous potential source of firepower. If Slade got his hands on that, no force on the planet would be able to stop him. So he'd gone there as fast as he could, with a little help from his space samurai powers. They weren't that impressive then, but he was able to assume the mindset of one with enough ease, and pour enough power into it, that he had some active powers he could fight with. He'd probably discard them later on. There were other powers that were more of a challenge and didn't involve being so self-righteous all the time.  
But in any event, the Slade-bots had proven too numerous for him, at least in his state at that time. They'd pounded him to the ground, eventually, and pointed a laser gun at his head. That had to be when the Mark 2 stepped in. It had sent a signal, or something like that, and sent his mind into full submission to his character. It gave him a power that was amplified a hundred times, that saved his life, because otherwise if he'd died that night he'd have popped up in a different world again. The way it had turned out, he had almost been terminated, soul, body and everything. Of course, during the battle he'd started to get bored with robots, and he'd spread out his senses to seek out better prey, Slade's general.  
Again, that was the Mark 2 pulling the strings. It had counted on him spreading his senses, so when he did find the general he was bombed full-front with the image of her terrible demise, along with the lamentations the spirits added to it. That trauma was enough to make him forget he could switch back to the mindset of a normal chaos mage, a state where he didn't have to care. But now he did, and he swore to never do anything like that to someone else. He would not, could not, give in to any temptation to use his power on a girl just to get what he wanted. One thing led to the next, and he later found himself forced to separate the different aspects of his mind, and create a keeper of balance, who would also function as a guardian. Later still, he developed an affection for the transfer student…who would eventually get him shot, again, all because of that accursed Mark 2. After a little thought, he realised, she wasn't really a transfer student. She was an American who'd spent some time in Japan. And she had friends in high places…but none of that mattered now. The key event that had locked him, boxed him up, was now undone. The event the Mark 2 had used to traumatise him was no longer valid. Pretty soon he'd be able to shift his mind again, and now that his energy levels were so high he could act like a walking Improbability Drive. So he could wop now…and maybe even go through several places in the universe at once.

While he was contemplating this, Raven was looking at the result of his labours. To her, it wasn't an 'it' lying there, it was…something else. She just took the clothes, used her dark powers to lift the girl's limbs so she could put them on her, covered her with a blanket and rested her head on a pillow, then turned all the mirrors in the room so the energy level wouldn't be so high she couldn't sleep. Raven briefly considered undoing it all. Maybe it was some petty grudge, maybe it was her demon lineage, but for just a moment the thought passed through her mind that this was enough. She could do it; after all this effort Juro had put into it, she was capable of destroying this once and for all. She could even do it without leaving any trace. But she decided against it. She may be doomed to destroy the world, but until then she would not have such an atrocity on her conscience.

"Is she dressed?" Juro asked when Raven came out.

"Yeah, she's dressed. I gave her some sheets and a pillow as well. She'll need her sleep."

"Was it selfish of me, to do it like this?" he asked," I only did it out of self-preservation, really. I have nothing to do with her, and here I am…"

"Safe in the continuum," she interrupted, "You can't be erased from history now. When all the alternate universes drift apart again, you'll still be with us. They can't overwrite you after this, Will."

TTTTTTT

When they got back in, and the truth was finally revealed, BB was the first to react.

"You…freed…Terra?"

"It could only have gone the way it did. Nothing you'd have done would have changed it," Juro replied.

"But, friend, you said she could not be revived. You told us you could not do it," Star added. Robin was more mulling over the whole thing.

"Because at that point in time I didn't know it was her I had to free. When she was turned to stone, the event was used to burn my mind. I couldn't remember ever being a different person, nor what I'd seen. And besides, she was never dead. She was alive in that rock."

"Say what?" Cyborg decided to add.

"The device Slade used to control her short-circuited her energy channels, her nervous system was bleeding electricity when she stopped the volcano," Raven said," and like I said, astral parasites swarm to the troubled. Her fear, her insecurity, it was like dropping a steak in a piranha tank. They must've swarmed at her right after, stopping her reserves from restoring, draining her life…in most cases, she'd have dropped dead right then and there, but her energy isn't like that of a normal person. She'd been carrying her burdens for a long time, and that last effort left her defenceless. She just…turned to stone, device and all. Pure and simple."

"If it was so simple, Raven, why didn't YOU see it?" Beast Boy was thoroughly angry now, and Juro was getting a headache from him.

"It was never in my system, that's why," she retorted," I've never had to deal with the demons that flock to other people. I have enough trouble with my own. I was never told to develop the ability to see them, because I never needed it. If I felt another presence leeching off of me, I could get rid of it. I had no way of knowing. Everything we tried, we did because we thought we knew how it had happened. We thought we knew how it worked, how she worked, but we didn't. So we failed."

"And the only reason I could see them," Juro said," was because school is rife with them. Everyone's petty concerns over their looks, all those fears induced by bullies…it's like an anthill. You can't study magic and get dropped into that hostile an environment with no armour. I knew how to see what happened because I had to; it was the only thing the Mark 2 couldn't predict; it couldn't actually see me until it had made the first move.  
Besides, BB, do you even know why you're upset? Is it because you can't stand the fact that she got out without any help from you, or that the first thing she noticed waking up was me sitting on her? Or maybe it was because you could have figured it out yourself, huh? I'll bet she was prone to mood swings when there was a mirror around, am I right?"

BB swallowed his anger then, before he did something stupid like lunge.

Robin was the voice of reason through it all.

"So what happens now? Will she just wake up in the morning and be back to normal, or…"

"I'm not that stupid to wake up a girl who can summon earthquakes whilst sitting on her mostly naked back and not put in some security measures. I blocked her memory, so she won't have anything to get emotional about. I think we can all agree that the best thing would be to let her know we're friends, now, and get her to control her powers before we restore her memory,"

"You mean you're going to restore her memory. The rest of us are just chopped liver to you," BB grumbled.

"You can't accept the fact that she's really back for the sole reason that I brought her back, I can understand that, but do you really think she'd be better off if it had been you? Assuming you got the parasites off and restored her neural pathways and energy channels to normal, you'd still have the containment suit to worry about. That thing triggered on body heat and heartbeat, and was programmed to kill her if it didn't receive a signal. Does that prospect seem better to you? To see her live again, only to die a horrible death?  
Whether you like it or not, I succeeded because I can alter the way I see things, because I've learned to see the demons that haunt the normal folk and not care. You don't know how real magic works, and if you did you wouldn't be yourself anymore, believe me. Just wishing for her to come back doesn't work, sadly. You only saw a statue; I saw a person being eaten alive. You never wondered how she'd gotten her powers; I know she got them because she would have died without them, but the spirit who gave them linked it to her emotions, and her fear always got the better of her…"

"That's enough, Juro," Robin said," we get it. This is just one of those things that had happen the way it did. So let's just put things aside and figure out what to do. First off, with Slade back we can't risk leaving her alone. And if what you've told me is true, Terra will be bed-ridden for a while and unable to fight for a long time. And no, Beast Boy, I'm not letting you guard her all that time. Everyone who can fight, will. We can't let the Teen Titans go around with one less member if our worst enemy is back. So, Cy, I want you to call the Titans East, tell them they're taking in a patient."

"What?" Beast Boy shouted," how's she ever gonna figure out we're her friends if we ship her off right away? Besides, if she needs to learn to control her powers, wouldn't it be better if Raven…"

"I already told you, I don't know everything, Beast Boy," she interrupted. Starfire, meanwhile, couldn't help but wonder if Terra was awake yet, and if so, when they'd get to see her. Raven continued.  
"I don't have any information on how her powers work. Not the Geomancers of Squee, not the Continental Archmages of Merkin, nothing describes what she could do. I have nothing to help her with. Even if she learned to meditate, it wouldn't help her powers if she can't get a grip on them."

"Might I make a suggestion?" Kai the Kappa intervened," as it so happens I have a volume that describes the movements of the uh…well, I suppose Earth-bender is the closest translation. The markings are of an Oriental origin, but not beyond translating, and the pictures are clear enough. It was a gift from one of the masters in the craft. They do that, from time to time; hand out manuals of martial arts and magic that would otherwise be lost forever. And now that I don't have to keep old Will's mind in balance, it appears I have some free time on my hands."

"So you think you can do it? You can train her?" Robin asked.

"Well, I kept him in line, didn't I?" Kai replied, pointing to Juro.

"Okay, so that's the plan. Kai will teach Terra how to control her powers, and Juro will give her memory back as soon as we know she's stable. And we're all going to make sure she knows she's still welcome," Robin summarised," Do we all agree?"

They did. After that, they went to see their friend. It was weird to see her, especially given the fact that she didn't remember. They explained what would happen, why it had to happen that way, and most importantly that she was with friends at all times. She couldn't speak too loudly yet; the process had worn her out almost as much as it had Juro. And despite the fact that he couldn't tell her anything, Beast Boy decided to guard her for the night. He shapeshifted into a green dog, and lay at her bedside, where she could see him. She couldn't tell why, but it reassured her.

TTTTTTT

When they all went to sleep, Raven couldn't help but wonder. Juro was his normal self, the self that could shift his personality. So did that mean he just liked her because his assumed character did? And if so, would he still want to be with her when he went back entirely?

She couldn't risk it. This was the best opportunity she had. The odds of another mage of her calibre coming along were nil. As much as she hated to admit it, she needed someone to hold, someone who understood her problems…another mage like herself.

She would do it tonight. He was still partially locked in his space samurai character, so if she could do it now, then it would be more or less permanent. She heard the pink-dressed love Raven encouraging her, saying it was the right thing to do, but still…she had her reservations. The more she thought about it, the more determined she became. She took the vial of ointment she'd prepared for this eventuality, and opened a warp directly down into Juro's room. He was sound asleep, mask off. She approached his bedside and whispered in his ear.

"Will, it's me. Could you wake up for a moment, I have something important to say."

He reluctantly opened his eyes and turned to lay on his back. He noticed now she was dressed in her usual leotard, but without the cape and cowl. It was probably a different fabric as well. He listened intently as she spoke.

"I want to be with you. I want to feel all those things that other people always feel when they're around someone they care for. You're the only one who might be able to give me that."

"But, Raven," he replied," you can't let go of your emotions. Your power would go out of control and if I let go, who knows what would happen?"

She went to sit astride him now, her legs touching where his were under the sheets. She wasn't wearing her boots either. She guided his hands to the seam of her leotard, around her thighs.

"It doesn't have to be like that, Will. All you have to do is answer this; do you like me, Will? If we could be together, would you be happy for it?"

His hands gripped her a second, hard, then he fell limp all over his body. So his Master Switch hadn't been removed yet.

'Good,' she thought.  
"I'll take that as a 'yes', then," she said. He couldn't move now, not until he regained control of himself, and with her sitting on him that wouldn't be too soon, she guessed. He couldn't protest when she lifted his shirt, baring his chest. She took the vial.

"This is called the Delilah Rite, it's a ritual that binds two persons by their mind, soul, body, everything. You'll feel a burning sensation when it's over, and your muscles may go into spasms for a bit, but when it's over, you and I will be bound. You'll feel happy around me, and I around you. And we'll both be able to let go. But other than that, you'll feel normal. You could probably break free if you want, but I'd just like to try it for a while," Raven admitted. She wanted to feel these things she'd only heard about and not worry about the consequences.

"Then do it," he whispered.

She took some of the ointment on her fingers and rubbed the symbol she wanted on his bare chest. It felt cool, tingly, and he felt his resistance grow feeble. He just wanted to surrender. After she was done, she put some of the cool fluid on his hand. She pulled her leotard down a little, and held his hand to make the same symbol.  
They both felt it, some primal connection growing between them. Nothing mattered that moment but the other. She fell face forward on him, and she could feel her chest burning. Her arms wrapped themselves around him, and she couldn't help but put her forehead against his. Her legs wrapped around his as well, and gripped out of their own accord. Her neck tensed, pushing her forehead into his, probably making a mark with her crystal. She felt his arms around her, holding her tight as well, and she could only imagine how he was feeling. Regardless how she looked at it, she had put a mind control spell on him. It was unethical by the standards of Azarath, which clearly stated this rite should only be used as a last resort, if men should ever try to rule the realm. But she didn't care; she'd made her choice, and it felt good. The liquid was vaporised now, or absorbed into their system, she didn't know. They fell asleep just like that, Raven with her legs around Will, Will with his arms around her, and he'd probably wake up with a dent in his forehead, but it was a small price to pay.

Right before dozing off, she heard him softly whisper to her:  
"Happy birthday, Raven."  
And even though Slade and Terra had complicated the day, she had to admit it was indeed a happy birthday.

TTTTTTT

Terra, meanwhile, was drifting in and out of dreamland. That green dog was supposed to guard her, and she knew it was really a boy, and a friend, but she wondered…  
She decided to hold her breath for a little. The dog quickly opened his eye, alarmed at her sudden lack of breathing. She quietly exhaled and the green teen went back to sleep. He would guard her, she realised. Nothing bad would happen tonight, not if he could help it. Reassured by her guardian, she slept soundly for the rest of the night.

TTTTTTT

In the morning, Robin was still in doubt. What could he do? Just going over to Star and apologise for his behaviour might not be enough. He wasn't even sure what she wanted. Maybe knowing that would help. It was still early, but then, he'd never needed a lot of sleep and neither had she. He went to her room, knocked, and steeled himself for what he was going to say. She came out in her usual outfit, and he could feel her body heat from where he was standing. He swallowed.

"Star, I'm sorry for not doing this earlier. I should have asked this before…well, I guess before we became Teen Titans. But I didn't, so I'll ask it now.  
What do you want me to do?"

She tilted her head sideways, indicating she didn't know what he meant.

"Do you want me to be your boyfriend, just a friend or…what do you want? Just say what you want me to be for you, and I will," there, he'd said it.

"Come in, friend Robin, and close the door. I will show you what I've wanted to do with you since we met."

TTTTTTT

Juro and Raven woke up feeling just peppy, and it turned out Juro's outfits had all undergone a slight change. Raven noted that the new version of his costume made him look like Rorek, the wizard who'd imprisoned Malchior, though obviously the hair was different. The central symbol on the chest was a diamond with eight arrows coming out of it; a large one for all the main directions of the wind, and a smaller, slightly curved one between the larger ones. She found she liked the new look a lot, and for once she felt normal, having the closest thing to a boyfriend she might ever have. Juro seemed a little uneasy at it, but he could live with it nonetheless. They also wisely decided to keep their new relationship a secret.

Terra and BB woke up feeling drowsy, and BB carried the now amnesiac girl to the main room for breakfast.

TTTTTTT

Robin and Starfire, on the other hand, had already been awake, and Star had finally seen the opportunity to show Robin just how Tamaraneans express their affections for one another. She'd guided him to her bed, placing one hand on his belly, then lifted his shirt and put her index and middle finger in his belly button.  
Robin heard the distinct and unique noise of a starbolt, and fell backward on the bed as he felt the energy blast burying itself in him. He felt paralysed and confused, but was glad to see she hadn't accidentally killed him. She then moved her two fingers across his chest, all the while blasting him with tiny little bolts that sent surges across his entire body and rendered the points of impact insensitive. She smiled whenever he twitched, be it from the stings or some involuntary spasm. She wanted him to feel all that, he realised. This was just her way of expressing… whatever feelings she had for him.  
When it was over and she rested her head on him, his limbs felt like they were hooked to a car battery, and she hadn't even gone below the waist. So that was how Tamaraneans went to second base: pinpoint starbolt acupuncture. She did love him, but apparently there was a slight cultural difference between what that meant, exactly. He was grateful for the fact that procreation only came a long time after the first declaration of love. For now, they would be content to simply enjoy each other's touch, and if things did go further, Robin thought, they could always adopt.

TTTTTTT

With all these things going on in Titans Tower, one may be led to think that Cyborg was being left out of the romance, being stuck with a long distance relationship with Bumblebee. This is why the author would be keen to point out the following: both Cyborg and Bumblebee were technical geniuses in their respective fields. The author leaves it to the reader's imagination what kind of solutions they found for their problems.

TTTTTTT

Yes, on Earth things looked great. Titans Tower was bustling with life and love.

In space, on the other hand…

The ship could have easily been identified as a flying saucer. It only had a handful of passengers, but they had all come from the same primal matter. In the central compartment sat a white cube known as The Source. It was the source of the diabolical Newfu, a semi-intelligent substance akin to tofu that sought to eradicate all the sentient life it could find. It was finding none, of course; this was a remote backwater part of the Galaxy. Then suddenly, by a strange coincidence, a glob of noxious gas wopped in right in front of the Source. It coughed and gulped, but obviously it suffered no permanent damage.

"Bob! Where did this assassination attempt come from?" it shouted with a high-pitched voice. Bob, one of the identical clones it had produced, replied in his usual tone.

"It came from a small planet 42 clicks away, oh Supreme Creator."

"Good, at last I have found a planet to destroy! The Newfu shall conquer all!"

And just as the Titans were enjoying their taste of normality, the Source sent its milk-powered flying saucer towards Earth to go kidnap some fresh cows and maybe wipe out a planet or two.

* * *

Author's notes 2: Just so we're clear; reviving Terra was a means, not an end. Also, mirrors are said to be good wards against say...ghosts, so don't laugh at that. Also, keep in mind Juro is now officially a true chaos mage, and will be making it quite clear from now on. 


	19. Earth Bender Boot Camp

Author's notes: The creative process is a strange one. One of the earliest ideas I had for this story was to introduce somebody who used reviving Terra as a means instead of an end. Coming up with a reason why he had to do it was pretty easy; I thought HHG deserved a happier ending anyway. What to do with Terra until the end of the story was a little trickier. I tried to take into consideration every possible ailment she might have from her stasis or before, from a mage's perspective of course, but what to do with it? The answer, as so many, came to me one Saturday morning.  
Ladies and gentlemen, Terra will now be joining Kai's Earth Bender Boot Camp. Terra fans may rejoice, but Terra haters can snigger a little too.  
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, the idea behind Earth Bending or Beasts of Fnord (it's in there, trust me) or Chaos Mages. Terra learning to walk again was based on a little segment from Kill Bill, in case you don't see it.

**Chapter 19: Earth Bending Boot Camp: Abandon all Hope, All ye who Enter**

Things were all luvvy duvvy in T-Tower. Terra was back, with amnesia courtesy of Juro, Robin had finally fessed up to Starfire, Raven had Juro under what pretty much amounted to a mind control spell, and Cyborg… let's just say he was happy and keep it at that.  
Breakfast passed in a cheery manner, and Terra was sure now she was indeed with friends, though it seemed something awkward was up… she didn't think further on it. Beast Boy took her to the room where Kai the Kappa, Juro's now unemployed mini-Blastoise spirit secretary (try saying that five times fast) would show her the ancient and mostly forgotten art of Earth Bending. He'd gotten the manual from a deceased master, that's what he said, at least. First him and BB had to teach her how to stand and walk again, for which Kai had devised a very simple method: he sat her down, told her to stare at her feet and keep repeating:  
"Wiggle your big toe."

Oddly, it worked after only ten seconds, and she was on her feet and walking in no time. After that, BB was told to leave, as the training did not allow for spectators.

It was strange for Terra, then. She was alone with a creature that had absolutely no familiar features whatsoever, in a room that was rigged with things she couldn't know about, about to be trained to control powers she wasn't even aware of at the time.

Kai took out the old-looking book and began the lesson.

"Alright, then, Terra. You know why you're here?"

Her throat still wasn't accustomed to speech quite yet, so she didn't reply too loudly.

"I have powers that I need to control, right? Like Beast Boy can turn into animals, I can…do stuff?"

He nodded his small head.  
"That's right. Your power was given to you by a spirit to save your life. It gave you a specific kind of energy to wield. Unfortunately, when you started fabricating the same energy yourself, your emotions drove your power out of control. Energetic parasites swarmed to you and soon you lost control. From that point, you became a drifter, causing accidents wherever you came, which only complicated your situation. You got stuck in a downward spiral, and now you've been reset and you're ready to learn how to manage yourself. When that is done, your memory will be fully restored by the guy who woke you up. Then, with all the knowledge you have, you will be able to decide whether or not you wish to stay here. But in any case, you **will** learn to control your power. Any questions?"

"Just one: what is my power again?"

He raised an eyebrow at that.  
"You will be told when you have completed the first level of the training. I expect that will be at the end of the day."

"And how long do I have to train? I'd really like to know how long I'll be an amnesiac."

"Well, if all goes according to plan, I'd say a week or four. But keep in mind your memory is not lost. It's been blocked for your own safety. Your personality may be a little different from who you were before, but Juro...he had his reasons for doing it like this."

"Why did he wake me up? How did I even…? My head hurts."

Kai decided to start in earnest now.  
"Do not think about that. You'll only wind up hurting yourself. I suggest we get started now. Take a good look around the room, Terra, for you shall be seeing plenty of it for the next few weeks."

It didn't look at all special, really. Just four walls, floor and ceiling, one big mirror on one of the walls, some doll-like contraption with cloth on it…

"You'll notice there's a uniform on that training doll. Put it on, please. I'll turn around."

The uniform was pretty much a perfect fit, green, and had some trapezoidal shape at the chest. It left her feet bare, though.

"Well, the uniform fits you nicely. Before we proceed, though, I should warn you of a few ground rules:  
Rule number one: Regardless of what is happening, you do NOT lash out at me or anyone else in blind anger.

Rule number two: When I tell you to do something and you fail to do so, don't worry about it, that's normal. When I tell you to NOT do something and you still do it, expect a severe punishment.

Rule number three, and this one is really important: You never, ever call me 'master' or 'sensei', or any other term that suggests that I know better. Call me 'Kai', that's my name in case you didn't know, or 'coach', if you're feeling particularly positive. But never think that I am going to show you what to do. I just happen to be the only one with a book that might help, and the only one who can read it. That is all. Likewise, you will never hear me calling you 'child', or 'girl', or any other term that has the slightest derogatory meaning to it. Are you comfortable with these rules, Terra?"

She nodded.

"Very well. Let's start," he opened up the book and started leafing through it," history, philosophy, practical considerations, we can do all that later…let's start with," he stopped," the basic stances."

Looking at herself in the mirror she went through the stances, most of which just involved specific positioning of the feet, now at hip breadth, then one over the other, now with the arms…then came some basic punching…next up was the blocking regiment…stomping and kicking a little…she was barely working up a sweat, but her feet were starting to hurt, and her arms were getting a little heavy.

"Well, that's no surprise; you haven't used them in a while," the turtle creature said with a flourish," but I think you are now ready to start practising with a hitting bag," he said, reaching for a little remote control built into one of the walls.

"First, though, you will need to stretch a little, these exercises can take a toll on your flexibility, and we can't have that, can we?"

She stretched her triceps, legs, belly…Kai made sure she didn't miss any muscle.  
"And now for the hitting bag," he added.  
Only now did something click in Terra's head. She moved to the middle of the room on Kai's request.  
"Don't you mean 'punching bag'?"

Kai pushed a button, and before she knew what was happening, a large punching bag fell out of the ceiling, swinging at an angle so it knocked her flat on the ground.

"No, you see, a punching bag is a bag **you punch**. A hitting bag is a bag that** hits** **you**. Cyborg installed some for Juro a while back," Kai replied, his back toward Terra. He turned around, seeing her sprawled.  
"I suggest you get up and try to keep your guard up as well. The purpose of this exercise is to ensure that you can endure a simple physical attack. Keep your centre of gravity low, brace your legs and try to be a little quicker."

TTTTTTT

After being explained why he had to vacate Terra's training room, as the Titans now called the abode, BB tried to watch a little bit of television. Juro and Raven, however, had other ideas.  
"BB, I need a sparring partner. And as weird as this may sound: I need you to be it," the Chaos Mage announced.

"Say what?" came the reply.

"Juro has new powers now, and while his control is the same, he still needs to figure out exactly what he can really do in combat," Raven said," seeing as now he'll have to rely solely on chaos powers."

"But why me? Can't you ask Star or Robin? Or Cyborg? I'm sure he'd love the chance to fight for real," the shapeshifter argued.

"True, but Cyborg spends most of his time tinkering on new things for the Tower, Robin trains and monitors things around the city almost non-stop, and besides, his martial arts would put my Ven Zo tricks in a bad light. Starfire would keep holding back on me in an actual fight, and Raven is mostly a long-range specialist. I need somebody who won't be on the defensive once I wop past a long-range projectile. I need somebody with a good variety on short-range attack and defence," Juro countered," and besides, BB, of all the Titans you spend the least amount of time developing your combat prowess. Of course, you have every right to that; your power doesn't really need that much maintenance, it's in your DNA. Every animal form you turn into is what you would be if you were born as said animal, right? So any change in your standard physique might impede you in other forms. Still, I've got a training program I'd like to stick to, and that means sparring in mornings and afternoons. So, will you be my sparring partner, or do I have to create another servitor like Kai?"

"Dude, you over-analyse things, you know that?" the green teen decided," but since you asked so nicely, I'll take the position. Just don't expect me to be easy on you just because you freed Terra."

A few minutes later, the two were standing face to face on the Titans Training Ground, the little flat piece of land to the back of the Tower. Raven stood between them, with a notepad in hand.  
"Okay, guys, here are the rules for today: no name-calling, no back-stabbing, no cheap punches, and no pinning down. Today is just a little checklist to see what you can do. Beast Boy, you got your list as well?"

BB handed her the little list of tricks he'd thought up in his spare moments. This was a good opportunity to see if anything worked, he realised. They'd just improvise fighting a bit, no biggy. He went to the end of the field, and Juro followed suit. Raven had a timer near her or rather she had a signal she'd sound every time she wanted them to switch between attacking and defending. Juro would start the attack.

"Begin!" she shouted.

Juro cleared his head, then set it to randomise. It was a skill like any other, though it seemed useless for those who didn't know what it could lead to. He poured energy into the random images flashing through his head, and on perfect command, he wopped.  
This time he fully realised what happened. The Guide had told him about research into Finite Improbability technology that combined regular power sources with a generator of randomness, like a cup of tea with a grain in it. The random movements would be fed to a computer, this would steer it into the realm of Improbability Physics, and the rest was a simple matter of instant teleportation. In this case, he teleported right behind Beast Boy. As he brought the green teen down with a low sweep of the legs, Beast Boy suddenly realised he should have done more combat training before, as he was sure this would be a very painful and sobering experience.  
TTTTTTT

"Not quite a Titan, nor the one that fell,  
but challenge me and you go straight to Hell!" the demon bellowed. It shook the entire flaming realm they were on, nothing but a conglomerate of floating rocks and lava.

"Those were his exact words, Master," Slade replied.

"And you say his power seemed…irregular? As if it were an anomaly in the world himself? And his name was after Jurojin?"

Slade was recovering from his injuries, slowly but surely. The power of regeneration his master had given him was limited, and the demon seemed rather anxious about preserving his power. Slade's silence indicated a 'yes'.

"Damn it! The boy still lives! And that could only mean…she did it. She used him, but saved him as well. I'd have thought that accursed machine would have destroyed them both, but this…if it was her…"

"Your daughter was not responsible, Master; the message was delivered as planned," Slade interrupted the rant. It was only then that the demon realised he had been talking aloud. He had spent so much time in this imprisonment he'd forgotten how to keep his thoughts to himself.

"I'm not talking about my daughter. The one I speak of is far more powerful. You did not battle a mere mortal, but a veritable god. I'd have thought she would leave it be, but now it seems she wants a war. And a war I shall give her. I shall require your services again. I will need more power soon, and you shall bring me the force I need to defeat these…Teen Titans. My demon hordes may not suffice, so we will require a fresh batch. But that can wait. For now, you only need to know that the next time you fight that Chaos Mage, it will one god against the other. I shall not tolerate her meddling any longer! She will rue the day she crossed paths with Trigon, the Master of All Evil!" the whole world shook again.

"But who?" Slade queried, "Who could possibly pose such a threat now, with the end so near?"

The answer came, low and menacing, and comprehension would be followed by denial in only a few moments. It could not be, Slade would think, it was impossible. But that blissful disbelief would indeed come later. As it was, there were five long seconds that Slade could think of only one thing, that one being that he was to thwart with the help of his master. Her identity rang in his head.

"The Mother of all Murders and Wars, and the Daughter of the Night."

TTTTTTT

"Well, I guess that settles that argument, Terra: never try a high kick if you are not wearing a cup. It's just not a very pleasant feeling to ones reproductive organs moved up a few inches, regardless of your gender," Kai calmly explained. Terra was sitting cross-legged, aching on the inside of her legs. If that hit had come one inch to the right…she didn't want to think about it.

"I get it, but did you have to hit me that hard? That really hurt. A lot," Terra whimpered. She was bruised, battered, and her muscles hurt all over. The day was almost over, and they'd been at it a lot: punching, kicking, but for her mostly getting punched and kicked. For a weird little turtle thing, Kai definitely packed a wallop, and he had a lot of stamina when it came to jumping. But now he relaxed a bit: she got the message. A few basic points on combat had become very clear to her, painfully so, even, and in the future she would at least have some notion of how to take a punch. Kai took a few attributes out of a bag he'd brought in after the lunch break. He took a rock, a candle, a bottle filled with water, and one empty bottle.

"To finish off, I'd like you to close your eyes and slow down your breathing. Focus on the energy flowing through you. It's a universal energy that flows though everyone and everything. It's what keeps you alive. You should be able to feel exactly where you are really hurt, and how much."

She did as she was told, but something was…wrong. She did feel energy, but it felt alien, and too big for her to handle.

"There it is. You don't realise it now, but you've got a yellow glow around you. That's an energy surplus, and one you'll have to learn to handle. For the moment, relax, don't draw too much power, but focus on all four items before you."

She kept her eyes closed, and tried to reach out…but how was she doing it? Something vaguely told her to 'use the Force', but she was pretty sure that was random gobbledygook flowing in. She tried to move it by thinking about it, but that only hurt. She tried to move it by 'feeling it', and something gave way. It felt like an explosion, and when Kai told her to open her eyes, he had the rock in his hand.

Had she really done that? Was that her power? Moving rocks?

Kai sat down and went back to the beginning of the book.

"The Earth-Bender is master of ground, rock, and crystal. He is always stable on his feet, and he is fast in his defences. Where the opposite Air-Benders always strive to dodge an attack with their speed, the Earth-Bender uses his speed and strength to weather the assault. He never backs down, for he is firm as the Earth," Kai narrated," I assume now you realise why you first needed to learn how to weather an attack."

Terra was starting to realise what he was saying.

"That's my power? That's what I am? An Earth-Bender?"

"It certainly looks that way," he replied.

TTTTTTT

After being brought down to the ground about thirty times or as he referred to it, a bajillion, and giving his sparring partner some close-up views of a lot of sharp and different teeth, BB was glad when they called a day. Juro's new power was basically teleporting, only different. For one thing, he didn't make an actual sound while doing it: the 'wop' never had any distinctive source, strangely. BB still had all the right moves, not like he'd ever forgotten. Come lunch-time, he was back in front of the tube, and it didn't seem he'd missed much. He knew the real reason Juro had asked, but he wouldn't pay it any heed yet. All he was really trying to do was distract him from the fact that the girl he was smitten over was back from the dead, that he had done nothing to help her, and that he still couldn't do or say anything to her to make her feel better, at least not the way she deserved to feel. Ah well, he might as well check what he was going to miss, if Juro was really intent on keeping this training regime…

**End of Chapter 19**

Author's Notes 2:

I suppose not much actually happens this chapter, but still…if I revealed the Beast of Fnord now, it would ruin an otherwise perfect surprise, and if I show you what BB is getting himself into, you'd get distracted. As is, you now know there's a third party in the conflict between the Titans and Trigon (and yes, that same party has been pulling strings in the Digimon fanfic), you know it had an interest in the Mark 2 drawing together all the Improbability and you have some clue of the painful situations Terra is going to find herself in, and believe you me, she will feel pain.

I would like to point out, though, my somewhat queer take on the whole BB/Terra thing (queer meaning strange, not the other one). The writers of the show deliberately neglected to show just what Slade did to turn Terra over, a big question considering he left room for conflict in her head, at least at first. Of course, I've got my own take on that as well, and if I don't put that in the next chapter; it'll definitely be in the one after that. In case you're curious, I'll be using something from the Buffyverse. But that aside, if you don't know what Slade did, then you cannot make any judgement regarding Terra's actions. I know, because the little Ethics course I had (one of two courses I passed right away) covered techniques on authority. You'd be surprised what a lab coat and a supposed experiment will do for your subject's obedience…anyway, I don't know what Slade did on the show, but in this fic, he used a dastardly method of indoctrination, and Terra was helpless to stop it, even though it wasn't your average mind-control. I still intend to hurt her, though. Just for the heck of it.


	20. The Truth about Terra

Author's notes: In the whole Terra story arc, my heart always went out to Beast Boy. Maybe if he'd said something, or hadn't said something…things might have gone a little different. If he'd known everything, maybe he could've helped. Maybe he couldn't have known to begin with…in any event, these are questions that would haunt any normal person in his situation.  
I'd like to dedicate this chapter to someone who, in many ways, can be likened to Terra as I can be likened to Beast Boy. I made the mistake of not saying things I should have, and I still don't quite know what might have happened if I had. In fact, she doesn't even know what I wanted say, nor that I had anything to say in the first place. So to all you guys out there: if you see a beautiful girl in your class or anywhere else you'd see her on a regular basis, make sure she knows you appreciate her beauty, even if that's all. Don't make the mistake of thinking she knows she's beautiful: the anorexia epidemic is proof that most girls don't.  
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, anybody in it, and the same can be said of Danny Phantom and Buffy: the Vampire Slayer. I would also like to point out that this is one possible explanation for the whole Terra thing. You have every right to believe that in the series, she was evil, or she wasn't. In this story, well, you're about to find out.

* * *

**  
Chapter 20: The Truth about Terra. **

After one of their now daily rumbles, Beast Boy and Juro reclined on the couch in the main room. Then came the conversation Juro had been dreading.

"I still want to know," Beast Boy stated.

Juro pretended he didn't understand.  
"Know what?"

"I want to know what Terra's been through. I know you have the information in your head. I need to know what happened, and why," BB looked him right in the eye, then.

"Beast Boy, Terra's back. She's training with Kai this very moment, and you know she'll be back to normal in a few weeks…"

"That's not enough, Juro," the green teen interjected," when she's back to normal, I want to know for sure that I can help. She sacrificed herself for us, for the city, but I still don't know why she betrayed us to begin with. Maybe you didn't know, but I care about her a lot."

"I do know, BB, I was a space samurai, remember? Thoughts come pouring out of everybody 24/7, except for Raven, but then…she's Raven. I can show you what I saw of Terra's life, but I don't think you'll like it. Remember, it's what locked my mind up and you're asking to see the whole thing in one go."

But he would not be dissuaded. Juro wrote him a sigil, a mark to put under his pillow when he went to sleep. It was vital he not look at it before activating it, and BB followed the instructions to the letter. He was warned that when one dreams, time seems to go faster or slower, depending on the dream, and in this case, months and even years of time would be compressed into one night, at least from BB's point of view. He didn't know what he was getting into, but he felt he had to do it.

TTTTTTT  
It seemed as though he woke up in Terra's body. His, no, her arms felt…hard. Her legs too. He, no, she was getting out of bed, and looked at herself in the mirror. She felt sad, because today was another day of school, another day of being confronted with her own ugliness.  
_'Ugly? Where did she get that idea?' _Beast Boy wondered.  
Things blurred past. Breakfast…she didn't eat much…catching the school bus…her parents seemed kinda strict…then all the way to school. She was from Wisconsin, as it turned out.

Then the first revelation came to him: everybody always looked at her like she wasn't there. The girls made fun of her at lunch, something about her food weighing a ton.  
_'Dude, where did they get that? Terra's not fat, she's never been fat.'  
_But apparently nobody saw it the way Beast Boy did. Another blur, days going past at impossible speeds, and Terra's body felt different every day. She didn't have a lot of muscles left, and her stomach protested every time she ate, whether she was hungry or not. She started feeling cold at erratic times, and she once caught a tiny bit of…was that fluff? Why was there fluff on her arm?  
She took a knife…oh God, no!

She was talking to her parents now. They seemed like the fundamentalist Christian type, in fact, Beast Boy noted several similarities between Tara Murkov's mother and the Christian Fundie mother from the old horror-movie 'Carrie'. What were they saying?  
Something about obsessing over boys…how God would want her to be…to stop being suicidal or God would punish her and send her to Hell…but none of it reached her. Her mind was preoccupied with how not perfect she was, how she really had to pass some test tomorrow, why was she so stressed out?  
Then it hit him: even though she was only showing signs of trouble now, the seeds of it had been placed years ago. Every bad word somebody might have said in kindergarten, every little look she'd had of what people wanted her to be, every hint of her parents that she had to do better, it all culminated into this.

He felt her heart beating unsteadily, more so than when this dream had started. Her head throbbed with a constant pain, all around her head she kept hearing 'not good enough'…and so that night, she ran. She ran from her parents, from those bitches in school, and from everybody who didn't care.

She fell.  
She kept tumbling down and down…until she landed in a mud pile, in a cave. She couldn't get a grip on the slippery slope she'd fallen down from, and it was too deep to stand in. The mud clung to her clothes, and she quickly sank. She got a good gulp of the stuff into her lungs, and still the mud kept clinging to her clothes…it filled every nook and cranny it could…until she resigned to her death. She idly wondered what her fossilised remains would look like, and maybe if someone found her, whether they would care about how she died.

But she didn't die. Something reached out from in the Earth, she felt warm inside and suddenly the mud wasn't clinging to her anymore. She was being lifted up, and when she returned to the surface she coughed out all the muck in her lungs. She lay there, the slope being dry now, for some strange reason. She was clean, she was alive and she was fine. Maybe God had saved her.

In any event, she returned home, apologised to her parents, and promised to do better from now on. Beast Boy couldn't believe what he was seeing. Nothing changed at all. Nobody treated her any better than before, but now she had this constant, sickening smile on her face like nothing was wrong. She crammed every night till the wee hours, barely ate a thing, and every day she just felt more and more emptied.

First she decided enough was enough, then, when her teacher talked to her about her results, that was when the earthquake hit. She was in trouble, the teacher said, if this kept up she'd have to redo her year, it sounded…

'_How long had she been living like this?'_ BB wondered.

The stress, the memories of not being good enough, the knife and then that choking mud, it all came down on her…she glowed a bright yellow, the earth trembled and the ceiling fell right before her.  
Her teacher was okay, but the experience did bring up one startling fact: it hadn't been God to pull her out, she had done it herself. For whatever reason, she had a power now, one that she might use…maybe then people would like her better.

All these things went by so fast…Beast Boy couldn't tell if all of this had happened in terms of months or years. He guessed a year or two.  
Now she was talking to her parents again. She tried to tell them about her power, but they would have none of it. They wouldn't accept that their daughter was, in their eyes, 'an insult to God's creation'. She tried to make them understand, but they kept shouting at her that this was the work of Satan…it got to her again. She'd already learned to have control when she wasn't emotional, but when she was, bad things happened. She ran away, and never looked back to see if her parents had survived the sudden mudslide.

TTTTTTT  
Out on the streets now…she was scavenging for the most part. Still in the same state, though. She'd seen the Teen Titans on TV for the first time recently, shortly after the team was formed, in fact. She managed to use her powers to stop a robbery or two…people were friendly to her after that…but she never stayed.

Eventually she encountered a villain of a far higher calibre than she could handle. He looked a little like a vampire, dressed in grey and with black hair sticking out in two big horns. The guy was robbing a bank and Terra, that was her new name now, chased him all the way across town. She'd learned to float on a rock very recently, but her balance wasn't what it should have been. The guy turned around in mid-air and shot her rock to pieces. She quickly summoned another platform, and her mystery opponent came floating towards her when she was at street level. It was only now that BB noted she was wearing her Terra uniform, the one with the central T and the goggles. She must have gotten that from a grateful tailor or something. The guy she was fighting had dropped the money, or so it seemed. Terra hadn't noticed. They went at it, but the baddie was obviously a lot more experienced in combat. She hurled a rock at him, but it went straight through, literally. He taunted her in the way only supervillains can, and just shot her with another green energy beam from his hand. It knocked the wind out of her, and landed her neatly on the other side of the street. She panicked, sent one rock after the other at this guy, but it was no good. This guy was like a ghost.

"Who are you?" she asked, fear dripping all over her voice.

"Plasmius. Vlad Plasmius," he replied.  
What followed was torture. He became transparent and…went through her? He tried to get inside of her, possess her body, but her panic and her powers were too much even for him. She screamed as the energy she released tried to force him out, nearly tearing her apart in the process.  
"You know, I do believe you're first female I've ever taken over. I wonder if it's any different from possessing men," he sounded almost casual.

She fell unconscious for a split second, unaware of explosion she caused. When she woke up, the street was torn up, but Vlad had run off. At least he hadn't been able to do a possession on her. She was relieved at that. The money was gone, though, and she'd lost her first big fight. And she'd made a real mess of the asphalt. She went to the nearest place she could hide, to cry. Maybe she wasn't cut out for this sort of thing after all.

TTTTTTT  
In Gotham City now, Batman's home turf. People were friendly here, too. The pies were great, and she didn't need to fight any supervillains because…that's what Batman was for, right? She had her own little patrol area, and nobody minded her being there. The police didn't give her any trouble, either.  
But like all good things, it had to end sometime. One day the Guardian of Gotham, the Dark Knight himself, came racing through Terra's neighbourhood in his equally dark Batmobile, chasing what looked like a man made up entirely out of clay. Batman used to work with the kid leading the Teen Titans, maybe he'd help her control her powers better.  
Besides, the bad guy was all clay, right up her alley. What could possibly go wrong?

The fight was over quickly. She stopped Clayface dead in his tracks with a huge boulder crashing down, and the Batmobile had to brake sharply to avoid crashing into it. Batman came leaping out, and it's a good thing he did, because Clayface was a lot stronger and faster than he looked. He lifted the boulder clean off the ground and crushed Batman's car under it without so much as breaking a sweat. Terra was looking behind her to see the destruction she was responsible for. Then in a split second she felt something cold and hard wrapping around her head, and she panicked when she realised she'd made a big mistake. She was dragged off her feet, and she felt the pressure around her head rising. This guy could crush her head in an instant, and she couldn't do anything about it. But Batman was even worse: he just threw…were those bombs? He didn't care whether she lived or died. Those eyes were empty, and when Clayface dropped to the ground, they didn't change. Terra fell down on her knees, her head throbbing. Batman towered over her, and kept staring with those unfeeling eyes. She felt them seeing right through her, at the truth. She was no hero in his eyes, he couldn't help her. She'd just gotten in the way, a nameless silly little girl who wanted to fit in…she ran again. He didn't try to stop her.

TTTTTTT  
She went by foot from that point on, along a desert terrain. The loneliness started getting to her, as well as the fact that all of the clothes she had were starting to get really dirty. It occurred to her that all her life, bad things had happened when people realised she was in trouble, or that she was trouble to begin with. Maybe if she hid it all again, if nobody ever knew, people would accept her. She headed towards Jump City. That place had its own team of heroes as well, so maybe she'd fit in there. On her way, she found a toxic waste dump. All over, drums of chemicals not meant to see the light of day were scattered across a little canyon. She wondered if she should do anything. If she tried to use her powers to help, to bury the drums deep enough to be harmless, she might end up causing more damage. The chemicals might get into the drinking water or she might even trigger an earthquake given Jump City's proximity to a fault line. She remembered that from Geography. She just kept moving.

It wasn't until the shadow of the thing had blotted out her sunlight that she noticed the giant scorpion creeping up behind her. She dropped her things and ran towards the nearest rock outcropping.

_'That's when we met her'_, Beast Boy thought. His mind had gotten so accustomed to seeing things from Terra's perspective, it was startling to realise he wasn't really her. Things went fast from that point on. She was happy to have found other people who were…well…kinda like her, and she really took a liking to Beast Boy. But it was all a charade. Nobody knew. She confided her secret to Beast Boy the same night they'd taken her in, and then the alarm…Beast Boy saw and felt what went through Terra when they fought Slade's minions in the mine. He saw the anxiety when she accidentally buried him under rubble, and the utter fear when she squared off against Slade. She had power over Earth and he just had martial arts and a stick. She should have been able to beat him…but she couldn't. She always lost against the real villains. Then that voice of his came, deep and menacing, and agonisingly slow, as if to let his words tear even bigger wounds. He claimed that he'd watched her from the start, but to Beast Boy that didn't make sense. At the very earliest he could have watched her since her arrival in the desert. Everything before was outside his range. Slade couldn't have known everything about her, or he would have contacted the people she'd fought already. And it was only now that Beast Boy saw the spirits starting to hover around her; tiny little bugs that crawled and writhed over her as Slade was scaring her with his lies. He hadn't watched her from the start.  
_'He just said that to scare her. That son of a…'_ BB stopped that train of thought. He saw Terra's aura clearing up when he arrived, he felt how much she relished his comfort…he never realised he was the first person to really care. 

Then the heartbreak when Robin unknowingly blurted out he knew about her lack of control. Her aura went…greyish, and things started crawling again. Now came the moment BB had been dreading: what happened when Slade found her.

TTTTTTT  
It was so simple: she was sleeping safely in a cave, or so she thought, when Slade came walking by, casually. His feet didn't make a sound as he approached. He pointed some kind of staff at her…  
_'Come on, Terra, wake up, wake up!'_ Beast Boy yelled inside. She didn't wake up until after he'd zapped her with…whatever that thing was.

She was inside Slade's lair now, in a cage.

"Good morning Terra, how are we feeling?" that slimy voice asked.

She tried to use her powers, but they didn't work. Something was different. She felt…more independent, more confident…but why didn't her powers work?

He saw how Slade managed to convince her to turn on her friends, but he couldn't believe it. What did he hit her with?  
Everything that followed was full of contradictions. Terra joined the Titans again, but from Day One something was wrong. While they were fighting Slade, she knew what would sabotage them, but she didn't blow her cover yet. When they fought someone else, she felt like she was really part of a team, and with Beast Boy she felt truly happy. But when the day of the attack came, everything collapsed. She'd hoped to spare Beast Boy, but when Slade had actually followed her she panicked. Her aura turned grey again, things were swarming at her when she was on the ferris wheel, but in the hall of mirrors they dropped off and she calmed down. It didn't help her feeling miserable though. She really didn't know what had happened to her, why she'd agreed to it, and her heart almost literally broke when Beast Boy rejected her. He could see his own aura darkening as well, despite the mirrors.

Afterward, things got worse for her. Through starvation and sensory deprivation, Slade broke her will, at least enough to make her easy to manipulate. He couldn't break it entirely, of course; that would surely wreck her powers. Then the suit came. She was conscious when he put it on her. Beast Boy recognised the spot where he did it as the same place Juro had collapsed that night they were chasing Brother Blood. Didn't Slade have any decency? Terra was naked on that table. She saw every little piece of metal that he would graft to her, and the rods that stood out on the pieces he fitted to her…Beast Boy couldn't bare to look at it, but he was unable to look away. Next time Slade would show his face, he vowed to tear him limb from limb. Once the suit was on her, she needed a few days to learn to move with it, because obviously a few pieces…intruded her anatomy. Beast Boy saw the cold heartlessness Terra felt when she attacked her friends again, but also a sharp pain every time she thought she'd killed one of them. When the city was taken over, she was only relieved she wouldn't have to go through that again.

Of course, when it turned out she hadn't killed her friends she panicked.

TTTTTTT  
Beast Boy now saw Juro, and a bird hanging around in a place that felt…off, like normal laws of existence itself didn't apply. Juro was fighting Slade's robots, who were trying to get into a house that had all kinds of weird equipment stashed on the roof: antennas, dishes, things that weren't really antennas or dishes…Juro was a lot weaker back then. They overpowered him, but then that birdy thing glowed and Juro started fighting again, with a lot more power too. Meanwhile, BB's view shifted to beyond the city, beyond the planet, even. A space ship was hiding behind Pluto, and it carried fat slimy creatures that didn't look too bright either. Something told him this was a planetary demolition crew, and at the centre of it there sat another bird identical to the one controlling Juro.

It went back to Terra, then. Slade damaged her suit, especially the sleeves, which he now knew were supposed to convert her body heat into electricity. After a long and terrible struggle, she broke free. She went back to normal, but her aura seemed faint. The exertion had weakened her, and things were crawling on her again. Her last effort had triggered a volcano, and when she used all of her powers to stop it, a scream went through the aether. It reached Juro's ears, and warped his senses, his personality, locking both in place. The last thing that remained was the thought that at least she'd had a friend in life. At least one person had really cared.

TTTTTTT  
After a long darkness, some sense of awareness returned. Something invaded her, pinned her down. Someone was inside her head…it felt like Plasmius was taking her over again…she fought as hard as she could, but she was too weak. She cried inside as her memories faded away, she couldn't try anymore. She could fight any longer.

She gave up.

TTTTTTT  
Beast Boy woke up, bathed in sweat. It was still night. Something about all the things he'd seen still puzzled him: what did Slade really do to her? Why could Terra control her powers without that control suit, even when she was emotional? What was that rod thing?

On pure instinct, he headed for the Trophy Room. This was the place where Robin kept all the mementos from their great battles. Control Freak's first remote was there, as well as the handcuffs Starfire was wearing when she first landed on Earth. BB never came in here: this was more Robin's spot, but something told him this was where he needed to be.

There it was, hidden underneath a glass lid like everything else: the rod.  
"It's called a ferulla gemina," a voice said behind him.

"How long have you known about this, Robin?" BB asked.

"Juro came in with it that night you went after Brother Blood. He felt it belonged here, along with the other weapons. He said this is what Slade used to turn Terra over," the Boy Wonder explained.

"How does it work?" BB was curious. Something about it made it look more dangerous than it should.

"A bolt of personal energy is channelled through the conduits, and stored until it forms a projectile loaded with a single intent. Basically it's a magic wand that can only do one thing. I asked Raven about it once, to see what kind of magic weapons we might expect in the future. She doesn't know we have one here," Robin stood next to him now.

"But what's the intent? What happens if somebody gets hit by this thing?" he dreaded the answer, but he asked nonetheless.

"Every living creature that has a consciousness is made up of several aspects that balance each other out. A ferulla gemina's blast separates these aspects. It effectively splits someone in half. I guess in Terra's case, it made one half that had her powers, but only her insecurities and weaknesses, and another that had her sense of independence, her good spirit, but not her powers. My best guess is Slade trained the submissive one with the powers and starved the one that could think for herself. When he brought the two back together, the submissive part of her was more predominant. That's how she could control her powers when she returned. That's why things happened the way they did; her balance was disrupted. On one hand she knew she'd feel security if she obeyed, on the other hand she could do the right thing, but feel weaker for it."

"But…what if we'd just zapped her with this after she'd been turned to stone? Wouldn't that have made her normal again?"

"Only half of her, BB. This thing only separates the things that are already there. It might have returned her to normal, but it would have left another half of Terra in dead stone. Maybe even turned to dust, I don't know. There's no telling what would have happened. And there's no point in trying to debate about it. She's here, now, and she will have to pick up her life at some point."

"Yeah," BB conceded," I guess you're right."  
They both went back to sleep, but Beast Boy couldn't help but wonder if Juro had really made the right call in bringing her back the way he did. But then, the fact that he wondered about what was best for Terra cheered him up. He still cared, he couldn't help it, and he'd do his best to help when he could.

But now, he needed some more sleep.

End of Chapter 20

* * *

Author's Notes 2: So…in this story, Tara Murkov started out in a Christian Fundie family, with a bully-induced eating disorder and psychological problems, and got her powers by sheer accident. She felt it had to be an act of God at first, then was disappointed to find God had nothing to do with it. Yes, I don't like Fundies one bit, deal with it.  
Then, when she ran away, she tried to be a hero, she tried to find a home, but she couldn't because she was too weak, or so she thought. Then she met the Titans, then Slade used that rod I stole from Buffy: the Vampire Slayer (it's the one were Xander got split in two, I think the demon's name was Toth) to completely mess up her head. It wasn't a foolproof mind control method, because he did leave her room for free thought, which explains why Beast Boy was spared in Betrayal. When she felt she'd lost yet another home she went back to Slade, who then proceeded to take necessary precautions and put a control suit on her, with two…well, if you still haven't figured out that little sick detail I added for extra evil, you're probably too young to understand edgewise. Then she broke free, due to a combination of circumstances (so not just the love for BB, you sappy romantics, the suit was busted as well) and then Juro released her, but under restraint from him.  
That should clear up all of the obvious questions you might have about this story's continuity, so feel free to review. 


	21. Not the Quest You expected

Author's notes: After this, you may get the silly idea that this is a Robin/Terra coupling. It's not. If you are also reading the Digimon fanfic, you will find some startling references to it, backed with a little bit of ancient mythology. The thing Slade is doing is what I feel is an underused plot device. A lot of magic systems believe thoughts are things, yet only a few people find a creative use for the idea. Probably because it's bound to sound corny, I'll bet, a pitfall I fear I cannot avoid myself.  
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, and apart from the Humming Bird and Zui Quan all the martial arts styles you'll read about here came from a movie called Kung Fu Hustle, one of my favourites. The story about Zui Quan actually exists, without the Ninth, obviously, and those booklets came from Kung Fu Hustle as well. The Humming Bird as a name I came up with, the style is also used in the movie, but not named. Kali-Yuga is the bo staff from Soul Calibur, a weapon from the Holy Trinity. The whole 'each person is a star' philosophy I got from Aleister Crowley's 'Book of the Law'.

* * *

Chapter 21:Not the Quest You expected.

Beast Boy let the issue of Terra's past rest now that he knew. He wouldn't have had long to think about it, because some days after a martial arts expert named Kitarou tried to rob an antiques dealer in the Eastern part of town. Robin was the first to catch him, as he was busy pilfering a bo staff Robin recognised as Kali-Yuga, or at least a very convincing copy. Given the fact that Robin hadn't had a chance to fight hand to hand in a while, the other Titans decided to let ole' Rob get a workout on the guy.

They found him floored in a two-story building three blocks further.

Apparently, Kitarou had trained under someone called the True Master, and this new ordeal had made Robin realise that he needed to know more about martial arts, and even though he didn't say it, everyone knew that he was concerned about the coming battles, and the fact was that even though he was probably their match in battle, he just didn't have the same powers the other Titans had. Even Juro had an edge on him with that wopping and that weird space-bar-brawling type of martial arts. And no amount of talking could dissuade him from what he was about to do: he couldn't settle for instructions from a spirit or the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, seeing as the latter was frequently inaccurate anyway, not even a new sparring program from Cyborg could tempt him to stay. Fact was, if Slade was going to keep coming back, he had to crank up his level.

The other Titans naturally all had their last say about it the day he actually left. The conversations were all quite similar, obviously, and as such they need not be mentioned here. There was, however, one thing that would stick with him for a long time. Terra, amnesiac though she was, also wanted to share a few parting words with the Boy Wonder.  
"So you're leaving?" she asked, still a little insecure about herself. Kai had told him about the progress she'd been making, she was now fluently launching boulders and her reflexes were up to where they should be. She still struggled with a slow and continued control, he'd said. That had come as no surprise, as she'd had that very same problem all her career. He did find it odd, though, to see her standing in that Earthbender uniform. The gap that was supposed to be there from her absence was replaced with awkwardness.

"Yeah," Robin replied. Awkward, indeed. If things had gone any other way, she'd have known her past by now, and…he didn't want to think about that. He was still the leader of this team and she was more or less a part of it. Or would be, or had been… thinking usually got hard when he reached that point.

"But you'll be back, right? You'll just go study under this True Master, and then you'll be back, right?" she sounded like a toddler or something, it was eerie.

"Why would you even ask that, you know I'll be back, Terra," Robin had just had about five conversations about his departure that had all gone the same way, so he was on a single-track mind now.

"I dunno. It's just that…you are the leader, right? You're in charge of everyone when they fight, aren't you?"

He tried to find the link.  
"Yes…everybody trusts me, mostly. You did, too, you know. I can imagine it's difficult to believe, but,"

"It's not that, Rob," she interrupted," I know I'm not supposed to remember, and I know there's a reason for it that I can't know either. But everybody's been so friendly I think I can live with it. Kai and Juro have promised to give me my memories back once I'm strong enough. And Raven's gonna make sure I don't get any false memories. But that's not what worries me. I just want to know…did I do anything to you before?"

Robin didn't know what to answer.  
"It's just that I've only been back for, like, four days and Starfire's shown me around the city, Raven's helped me pick out books from the library…she says it helps distract me from not remembering. Cyborg's got me started on the gym, even though Kai's pushing my powers already. Juro, well, he's weird, but he's been nice in a weird way, I think. But you…you've been different from everyone else."

After digesting that last bit of intel, Robin was relieved to find she hadn't realised anything too traumatic about herself.  
"What do you mean?" he dared.

"Everybody else seems…happy to see me. Like I'm really a friend who's been gone for too long. But you, you always look like somebody's gonna die. Even when you're on the Gamestation, even when you're with Starfire, it never lasts. For the four days I've been here, I don't think I've seen you in any happy moments. So is it because of me, or are you always that serious?"

'Are you always that serious?' rang in his head, and he suddenly realised his predicament with Starfire…

"You and Starfire are a couple, right?" she asked out of the blue.

He'd been undergoing the love Starfire showered him with, when she could, and that wasn't often, but for some reason he held back on himself. He knew how to relax, though; he had his joyrides on the R-cycle, those moments of total victory on the Gamestation…he had his fun. But she couldn't know that, not with the little bit she knew of him.

"Yeah, we are…sort of," he stammered.

Robin finally realised Terra was now, for all intents and purposes, an outside observer. Everything she saw of the Titans, she was seeing for the first time, even though they already knew her as a friend.  
"And it's got nothing to do with you. These last few days have been hard on everybody. I guess I just showed it more," he half-apologised.

"What about Beast Boy and Juro? Did they do anything to me?"

Robin headed for the door, but kept eye-contact.  
"Why do you ask?"

"Beast Boy's acting a little different from everyone else too. He's always got this little look in his eyes, like me wants me to approve. And Raven tells me Juro risked his life to get me out of…whatever it was. So are they trying to make up for something they did to me? They seem nice guys."

"They are, nice I mean. There's really nothing going on, Terra. They're just careful, is all. Was there anything else you wanted ask me?" Robin decided this sort of talk just had to happen, but that didn't mean it could take up all of his time.

"Guess that's all. And I'd better get going before Kai finds out I'm…"

"Late for class, Terra?" the odd turtle-thing had a knack for sneaking up on people, and even Robin hadn't noticed his arrival.  
"Well, Robin, off to find the True Master, are we?" now Kai had say his goodbyes. Robin was beginning to think he'd never get to leave.

"That's right, Kai," he couldn't keep the frustration out of his voice, either. Another preach about leaving and how he didn't have to…  
"Well, off you go then, mustn't keep the Ninth waiting," it came.

Hang on; he wasn't going to throw a fit about it? No lecture? Even his master had tried to dissuade him from it. And what did he mean by…  
"What do you mean: the Ninth?" Robin queried.

"Oh, you don't know? The True Master is well known in the spirit realm. Apparently few have ever met him, but those few who have always identify him as "The Ninth Immortal". Funny, really, nobody seems to know where in God's green Earth they got that name. Or what's happened to the other eight, for that matter. In any case, off you go, and remember to keep an eye open for frauds: they're like a plague in the higher circles of martial arts," at that he turned around and pulled Terra by the arm, motioning her to her training room," now, Terra, I have a real treat for you today: the Boulder Dash. Basically you pull a rock and hurl it around with your powers. Then the trick is applying enough force to keep it in its orbit, while not hitting yourself over the head with it…" it trailed off as they rounded a corner.

So he was looking for an immortal now? That certainly narrowed it down.

TTTTTTT

After landing his jet and finding the right village, Robin was faced with an old woman who told him to abandon his equipment and costume, and travel in white. His mask stayed firmly put, though.

Attentive readers or people who actually know to think outside the box will have figured out that the old woman who showed Robin where to go is in fact the True Master himself, or rather herself. They will probably also wonder why a young detective, one who dealt with criminal masterminds even Hannibal Lector might not comprehend, couldn't figure such a simple thing out for himself.

These people must not think very highly of dear old Robin, because he had figured it out the second the old woman had handed him his white outfit, which read "True Master fabric, 100 percent cotton, made in Taiwan" on the label. It should be noted that he played the ignorant fool to humour the Master. It didn't take him long to reach his first obstacle.

His first obstacle was a bridge guarded by a bear.

A large, talking bear.

A very, very large talking bear that he had to defeat before being allowed to pass. Moreover, he had to reach the mountain summit, the one the old lady had pointed him towards, before sunset, or he would have failed what he presumed was a test.

Robin tried bringing the beast down with a sideswipe kick, a plan that quickly evaporated when he realised that sort of thing just doesn't work on people who have five times your body weight and a conveniently placed centre of gravity.

Needless to say, the bear was sitting on him two seconds later. Still undeterred, Robin summoned a near superhuman strength and lifted the bear clean off the ground, then quickly dropping him in the river.

Guardian one: Beaten and wet.

TTTTTTTT

As Starfire passed by Robin's room, she chanced to see him standing in front of a mirror. Her hopes were quickly dashed when Robin turned out to be green.

Evidently, Raven was the only person in the Tower to ever lock her room, and armed with that knowledge, Beast Boy had snuck into Robin's room to try on his costume.  
He dared Starfire to join him.  
After all, the Boy Wonder had plenty of spares…

TTTTTTTTT

Now the Guardian of the Cave was a little trickier than the one from the river. As if it wasn't bad enough that he had to fight in the dark, in an echoing cave, that annoying old lady Robin now firmly believed to be the True Master, had gotten him to carry her buckets of water on a rocky road, barefoot. He was sore all over, and the snake did nothing to improve his humour, the hisses echoing through the cave. If it hadn't been for the echoes, he'd have been able to pinpoint the Guardian by sound. That he could do, that was an easy trick. As it was, Robin feared he'd have to improvise. He closed his eyes, tried to reach out with his senses…'Use the Force', he thought jokingly, only to find the Force did actually work. As if guided by something deeper than his own five senses, he grabbed the snake-man by the waist, who quickly surrendered.

Guardian two: Down.

Robin did wonder, though, about the nature of these Guardians and what they were supposed to teach. Their tests had to be providing him with some kind of moral, or lesson, but he couldn't think of what.

TTTTTTTTT

After Cyborg had joined Star and BB in the Robinfest, which consisted mostly of badly executed moves and silly playing with dangerous equipment, Kai and Terra wandered in, with Silky in tow, as the pet worm hadn't been fed yet. Upon seeing the three Robins each messing around with the R-cycle, the Birdarangs and whatnot, Terra shyly asked if she might join in. She was just curious how good she'd look in tights, truth be told. And Kai could do with some comic relief…

TTTTTTTTT

Not much can be said of the monkey Guardian, and when the fight was over, Robin assumed he'd learned to fight dirty, and use one's environs to his advantage. The fight had been on a field of bamboo poles, and he'd won by smacking the little ape over the head with one in mid-air.

He'd finally reached the Master's house: a small Shinto-style construction on the top of the mountain.

Then Kitarou threw some bombs at him, and Robin silently cursed himself for leaving his weapons where anyone could pick them up. If it had been Slade, he'd be dead now. The two fought, and Robin found he was exhausted from the journey.  
But the old lady was there, too, and the final truth of it all dawned on him:  
"There will always be those who take the easy way, instead of the right way. But that's no excuse for giving up."

Kitarou was no match for Robin then, even with the stolen weapons. Robin threw him as if it were a feather, saw through the smoke he tried to hide behind and then snapped his staff into his face. When it became clear who was the victor, Kitarou was escorted off the mountain. The True Master revealed herself, obvious though it was, and it turned out Kitarou hadn't studied under her, equally obvious. The stolen Kali-Yuga staff was entrusted to the True Master, who, incidentally, had placed an order for it weeks before. Then the training began. There was something bothering Robin, though.  
"Why did I have to reach this place before dark?"

"It's easier to see the path when there's light," she replied.

"But…isn't there a deeper meaning to all this?" he stammered. This was not how he'd imagined things would turn out.

"Not really; the Guardians separate the dross from the true warriors."

He still didn't understand.

"You can only pass the bear if you have enough inner strength, if your chi is strong enough. The snake can be conquered only by those who augment their senses by their chi and the monkey requires full body control, even of your own weight. Now, defend yourself!"

And so began their sparring match.

TTTTTTTTT

It had to be said, they all looked pretty darn good in Robin uniforms. So good, in fact, that they went and did the whole thing over again the next day. It was a fun new hobby, this Robining. Raven didn't seem to like the prospect, when the common room was filled with the trademark masks and R's. She wouldn't join in; she could resist simple peer pressure.  
"Hey guys," then the real Robin entered, and Raven felt good about being the most mature one in the Tower.  
However, this Robin was slightly taller than what they remembered, and his hair was different. When Raven felt in her gut that this was Juro; she gave up and just went with the flow.

TTTTTTTTT

When they were done, the True Master had some shocking news.

"Well, I can't teach you anything," she stated.

Robin was, needless to say, flabbergasted.  
"What? But, but…"

"What would I teach? How to kick better? You know how to train for that. Jump higher? You don't need my instructions for that. I dare say, most of the methods to strengthen one's chi are on your Internet to begin with, so there really wouldn't be any point in you staying for too long."

"So I came all this way…just for what I learned from the Guardians?" he was incredulous.

"Not exactly. I do have one or two booklets you may find interesting. Your chi is of a very strange kind, Robin. Most people are born with it flowing weakly, in ways that are less than optimal, or they are born with it flowing perfectly, or they require a trigger, like a near death experience. Yours appears to have been opened very recently. Tell me, have you had any grievous injuries lately that miraculously healed? Any arrows or knives in your flesh that later didn't seem to leave a scar? Have you had any acupressure?"

Starfire. Starfire's alien acupressure techniques. Those must've opened up his energy channels. What were the odds?

"Well, in any event, your chi is fit for these techniques, but I warn you they are not to be used lightly," the True Master headed for a book shelf inside," let me see here…the Twelve Kicks of the Tam School? No, that would unbalance you too much. The Hung Family Iron Wire? Not much use if you're not wearing your gloves," she took out every booklet as she said its name and casually threw it on the ground when rejected," The Eight Trigram Staff? Ah, yes, that may prove somewhat useful to you. But where is that…oh, Buddhist Palm and Toad Kung Fu? I thought I'd thrown those away after that Pig Sty debacle," she threw two more booklets to the ground," but perhaps you could use…ah, here it is! The Humming Bird!" she came down from her ladder with two of the booklets in hand. Robin had heard rumours of such little books called mìjí, but he thought they were just a myth. Less than that, even, he thought they were a joke. And he knew of the Pig Sty debacle she mentioned, but he'd thought that as a myth as well.

"You are… the True Master, right?" he asked, a little uncertain of what to do next.

"Yes, that's me. That's what people like to call me, in any event. Why?"

"It's just that," he said as she handed him the Trigram Staff and Humming Bird mìjí," I thought you were more of this…strict warrior type of Master."

She didn't look at all surprised at that.  
"Perhaps I should be; but then I like to think I'm too important to be taken seriously. You'll find these mìjí contain all the knowledge you should want, training, conditioning, techniques, everything."

He nodded.  
"I think I understand that, but I'm curious about one more thing."

"Name it, young warrior," she said with a flourish.

"You mentioned the Pig Sty debacle. That was when a bunch of martial artists went up against a mob known as the Axe Gang. But that was nearly seventy years ago, and only a handful of people know of it, and they consider it just a rumour. And a friend of mine said some people call you the Ninth Immortal. So, are you?"

Her expression hardened at that, and she motioned to sit down.

"I'd have thought one of your prowess would have run into someone who knows. Did this friend of yours specify what he meant by 'Ninth Immortal', or was it just a name?"

"It was just a name he gave me. He said that even the people who call you that don't really know why. So…who or what are they talking about?"

"Before I say anything I regret, you should know one thing: the story concerns beings not of this planet, and powers that mortal minds…have difficulty understanding. It's even harder to explain than the truly inexplicable ones, because those at least can be easily described as such."

"I think I understand," Robin said.

"To truly know what is meant by the Ninth, it's important to realise that his, or her, or its powers have only recently been making their presence felt again. Some time ago, a plan was conceived to destroy our planet. This plan came from aliens, I assume someone of your stature has dealt with them already," she stopped.

He nodded.

"In any event, the plan was born of greed and was meant to destroy all the Earths and those that dwelled on it. You see, young warrior, the universe consists of two things: experiences and things that can experience. Each person is a star, never the same in any moment in time and always gaining new experiences, which change them with or without their knowing. Each experience creates a new world, and each world exists separately, making infinite Earths. But our planet is special in that some of these worlds may overlap entirely, and experiences missed in one world are gained in another, creating a hybrid reality. But these creatures aimed to destroy all of reality for our planet, and designed a machine to compress or eliminate all possibilities of experience, which would create one world for them to ultimately destroy.  
They were thwarted by a person who existed only in one reality, and who had gained the power to draw any experience he wanted into him."

Juro. She was talking about Juro. The impact of what he'd done had never quite sunk in with Robin…

"Mind you, even his power was limited. These experiences could be drawn mostly from his own mind, but only in part into a physical reality. Still, the machine was destroyed, and infinite Earths soon began rebuilding themselves. It is from here that the Ninth began to fully employ its power."

"Then what is the Ninth Immortal? What does it have to do with all the Earths being destroyed? I know who you're talking about; the one who destroyed the machine is a friend of mine. Is the Ninth his enemy? Is it mine?"

She settled down in her chair, comfortably telling her tale.

"The story of the Ninth Immortal begins a long time ago…"

TTTTTTTTT

It should be said, Raven did not mind wearing spandex one bit, and nobody minded seeing her in it, either. Then again, the same could be said of all the Titans, the girls especially. Terra convinced Kai to let her work out just once wearing her Robin costume, and everybody else went about their usual business in a yellow and green spandex, with the obligatory impressions of 'Titans, go!' and 'Titans, trouble!' whenever a mild emergency showed itself, usually related to a lost remote.

Those were fun times in Titans Tower, fun times…

But halfway day 2, they were beginning to really miss Robin.

TTTTTTTTT

"The Eight Immortals that the world does know of," she narrated," were eight people who each represented a virtue. They were truly heroes, and they were the ones who created Zui Quan. You know now of whom I speak?"

Zui Quan…that sounded familiar enough. It was Batman's favourite trick while they sparred. Of course, that's why he hadn't thought of it; there were about four or five different stories about its creation, and crazy ones at that.

"However, there was a Ninth who was excluded from the legend because he did not have one virtue, but rather, he chose what he wanted to be depending on the moment: honourable, wise, cunning, even his prosperity could change at a whim. He was supposedly never seen without a hood concealing his face, but on two occasions he removed it in private. The first was when he courted Lady Kaguya, the Moon-Maiden, a figure in Japanese folklore. Then he disappeared for a while until after she departed to her home on the moon. After that he is recorded on several occasions, but always concealing his face. The second time anyone saw his face was when the other Eight were gathered, the birth of Zui Quan. Those two occasions he was described as both pale and dark at the same time, and his ears were like a rabbit's. This seems to suggest that he was also a spirit from the moon, a Moon-Man. But his behaviour, his acts of violence and random flirting, seem to suggest otherwise. The Moonfolk are always described as self-controlled, mild-tempered, but the Ninth was more mischievous. The only conclusion that leaves is that he was not from the same side of the moon as Kaguya, but from the shadow side.

They say the Ninth Immortal was a Yami Soratami, a Dark Moonfolk, the first of his kind to descend unto Earth. As you know, Zui Quan is also known as drunken boxing, and its creation still remains a blight to those who feel martial arts should be restricted by rules and laws. Some even believe that the fight where the Eight conceived drunken boxing, was in fact started by this dark figure. That would mean he, and he alone, is responsible for one of the most important revelations in martial history: that it doesn't matter what you do, as long as it works."

"But then, what happened to the other Eight?" Robin asked.

"Well, what do you think? What eight virtues might they have possessed, in truth, not legend? What would be the eight primal virtues and what would happen with the ones who had them?"

Robin thought, long and hard.  
"First would have to be acting in spite of fear. Courage is the First Virtue.

Second…always try to have as many riches as possible, not for greed, but to satisfy yourself and others. And having a lot of friends counts as a wealth. I'd say Friendship is the second.

Third, a balance in body, mind and spirit. Every human has impulses from all three, and to accept all the good ones and bad ones in oneself and others…and knowing which ones are right… I'd say that takes Love.

The Fourth, what could that be?" he wondered aloud," humans have always had an innate curiosity, but they've also always needed some caution when trying to learn. Curiosity and Caution…I'd say Knowledge in general comes fourth.

The Fifth Virtue, I'd wager is truth to oneself and others. But not just that; it's also knowing when to offer help and when it's best to remain passive. I'd say either Integrity or Sincerity. No, Sincerity is definitely closer.

The Sixth… maybe self-sacrifice. Giving up time and energy for others, always being there for others, to be reliable. Reliability.

The Seventh Virtue…never giving up. It's what you have to have when Courage and all the others just aren't enough. When everything fails, all you can rely on is Hope. Hope is the Seventh.

The Eighth… what could that possibly be? Maybe it would be doing things just for the sake of doing. Selflessness, wanting to do something with no desire of a reward. In one word I'd say it's the Light. "

"Very good. And if the people who had these virtues were so important, what happened to them?" she glared at Robin now, and the look told him this was a test to see if he'd learned.

"The people aren't that important," he realised," they'd move on, even if they were immortal, and the Virtues would return somehow. Originally, they weren't given, those Virtues, they came from those people. But that doesn't mean they can't be given to others later. You're saying the Eight Immortals are still on this world?"

"I'm saying that the world is different now, from when they first appeared. The Eight are no longer alive as persons, but their legacy still remains. And as for the Ninth…nobody knows the whole truth about him. Not even me."

Robin resigned.  
"I guess you're not going to tell me where you fit in, will you, Master?"

The old woman smiled.  
"It's not important to know my role, young warrior. It's important to know your own. I cannot teach you anything else."

They said their goodbyes, and Robin left.  
TTTTTTTTTT

A figure appeared behind her. It was dark, yet pale at the same time.  
"Funny how he knew about the Eight," it said.

"He is a smart one," she replied.

"Not smart enough to tell you were lying when you told him about me. You do know the whole truth. I told you."

"And how do I know it is true? You lie more than any other being in the Universe. You've caused more trouble than any other entity ever in existence. Can you honestly tell me that you can be honest?"

"Want some fruit?" came the reply.

TTTTTTTTTT

As Robin set his jet to autopilot, he tried to think about his trip. He'd beaten Kitarou, which had been his main goal. He now knew about the Eight Immortals, but the Ninth was still a mystery. Funny, though: all that fuss over a legend about eight people who got drunk and found out they could still fight. Well, nine people. Maybe he really was too serious; if a bunch of drunks can do all that, maybe it wouldn't hurt to just let go sometimes. He had the mìjí of the Eight Trigram Staff and the Humming Bird. Now he could be assured that come the next fight, he'd be more than a match for anything. He was satisfied.

When all the Robins were busy having pizza, using a Birdarang as a knife, Robin really felt happy. Terra Robin gave him a little look, and Robin Robin's expression put her mind at ease. Of course, right after that she turned her full attention to the green Robin.

Those were fun times at Titans Tower, fun times. And seeing Silky and Kai dressed up as him sent one hilarious thought through Robin's head.  
'Nine Robins… good thing we don't have any beer.'

TTTTTTTTT

"Why did you send me here, Master?" Slade asked telepathically. He was standing outside a school.

"Look at it, Slade. Can't you feel it? Frustrations, fear, hatred…all from these young little meatlings. The perfect fodder for my plan. The energies they release are enough, enough to build me a force greater than those Teen Titans. The Chaos Mage will likely find a way to bypass my own power, but he cannot stop this. This is human pain, human energies. And it is perfect for my new scions."

"New scions?" Slade queried.

"Don't worry. I won't back down from our deal. In fact, you can keep them when I am done with them."

Slade had gathered as much free energy s he could. He barely believed the amount of power these kids generated with their fear, and petty frustrations. It was negative energy he gathered, but still tinged with youth. What it was for, he could barely conceive.

But hey, he wasn't one to question his Master.

TTTTTTTTTT

Fun times in Titans Tower, fun times…

End of chapter 21.

* * *


	22. Control: Use it or Lose it

Author's notes: Well, this is a complete Ju/Rae chapter (hey, that actually has a nice ring to it…Ju/Rae…rolls right off the tongue). But don't be fooled: it's not JUST a Ju/Rae chapter, it's also a chapter giving my personal view on why Raven can't really be with BB or Robin or Cyborg, well, Cyborg maybe if they got along together, keeping in mind his…oh wait, I'm not gonna spoil the surprise. If you are a BB/Rae fan or a Rob/Rae fan, don't be offended, please. I am merely offering this as some picture of what could happen if Raven should combine with a non-mage. When arguing that BB or Robin would be ideal for her, I suggest keeping the arguments listed in this chapter in mind, for any shrewd individual will have thought of it already.

In fact, I'm sure this whole chapter has been done to death already, but still, it sets the pace for some things to come, so it's a necessary evil.  
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I am an enlightened Buddha. Now read and review, fellow luminous beings.

Chapter 21: Control: Use it or lose it. 

Raven and Juro were meditating together, as they always did in the morning. Juro didn't need to anymore, not really, but he still joined her. She liked being around him; he made her feel good about herself. The fact that she used magic had always made things a little awkward with the rest of the Titans, and the fact that Juro's magic was just weirder had been a relief.

And he made her laugh. Not out loud, but just enough to crack the tiniest smile she could muster. That spell she'd put on him had worked: her emotions could run rampant while she thought about him and no energy escaped: no accidental breaking, no poltergeist phenomena… thanks to that spell, she was fine.  
Come to think of it, she might actually get to have a normal relationship with Juro. That was a nice prospect, even if she was going to destroy the world… She couldn't tell him. She had to try and make this as normal as possible. He deserved that, and so did she. But what was a normal relationship?

It had been a week and a half since Terra had come back, and Beast Boy had tried to make things work with her, but obviously Raven couldn't follow that example. Robin and Starfire were impossible to understand, Robin especially. Nobody could tell when he was feeling in love, least of all Star, but she didn't mind. He must've said something, given her some consent that she could love him, but he didn't answer…at least not the same way Starfire did…at least not that Raven knew about…she was in trouble.

Her meditation was over, really, but she still sat there thinking. Juro wouldn't pick up on her thoughts, she was sure, so she let it all out in her head.  
What was normal? Normal people give presents, kiss, touch… That last part sank in deeply. They touch each other, they make the other feel special, beautiful…Raven remembered the first time she'd felt human touch. It had been some time before Azar, the immortal planeswalker that created her home, had died. That first touch had opened her eyes, all of her senses…it felt so good to be touched, to be hugged, to be kissed… her heart was racing at the thought of it.

"Will?" she asked.

He opened his eyes. He, unlike Robin, didn't always wear his mask; and she suddenly felt she liked the sight of him more than usual; those deep eyes…that changed colour every five seconds, show-off that he was, she could stare into for ages. She could drown in them.

"I'm not feeling very well," she moaned a little," could you please…hold me?"

"What's wrong?" he asked, placing his hand on her shoulder. That was enough make her shiver with…desire? No, couldn't be. She was a Witch of Azarath; spell or no spell, she had her emotions under control. She didn't even think about controlling her body: that was a task even the lowest novice could achieve.  
But she still yearned for more…his hand moved from her shoulder up to her neck, which wasn't covered by her leotard, and the sensation of bare skin against bare skin drove her wild. She clutched him, tightly.

"Please, just hold me. Hold me tight," she said, feeling decidedly out of her normal character.

He did hold her, without one question. Those arms wrapped themselves around her, to comfort her and keep her safe. Still she wouldn't feel at ease. With one hand on his neck and the other rubbing over his spine, Raven kissed him on the mouth. That made her feel even better, but she still felt a nagging little void. She missed something, but what?

All this time she'd been sitting in Lotus position, Juro being the one to move first. Raven's legs were still crossed, but when she uncrossed them, she realised what she'd missed: there was a big piece of her body that wasn't feeling anything. She wrapped her legs around Juro, she didn't care if she squeezed too tight, and then…then…  
Oh, while she was at it, she might as well put the boy to some real work. She unlocked her mouth from his, and gently pushed his head down a little, exposing her throat for him to lick. That felt good too. She unlocked her legs and sat sideways, so he could bend over to go lower. Her clothes still blocked some of the feeling, and he didn't use his tongue, but he didn't need to now. She pushed forward, burying his face in her…bosom? No, breasts, she told herself. Still lower, she could feel his nose going around her bellybutton…still not quite there…

What was she doing? What was she thinking?

"Raven? Are you okay?" Juro asked.  
She opened her eyes. Her mouth was really dry, and her heartbeat was faster than it should be. She still sat in her meditative position, and Juro looked really worried.  
"I'm fine. Just caught up in a scary train of thought," she replied.  
"If you want to talk about it," he offered.

"I know," she answered," but that won't be necessary."

TTTTTTTTT

Raven found breakfast hard to do today. She normally had enough with her tea; her body could sustain itself with only a little energy, but just to be on the safe side she joined Juro in a cheese omelette. A little protein never hurt anyone, anyway.  
She spent most of the time thinking about what had happened, though. Was that a fantasy of hers, played out a little too realistic because of her meditation? Or was it just a side effect of the spell? And if that was the case, what was Juro going through because of it?  
At any rate, everyone went about their own business afterwards. Terra and Kai headed for the Training Room, Robin went to practise something with a Trigram Staff or some such thing, and BB and Juro would spar as they always did that time of day. As for Starfire and Cyborg, Star needed to check up in her transmissions from home and Cyborg wanted to set a new high score on the Gamestation.

In other words, Raven had a clear trajectory: she knew exactly where to be and when to be there to avoid intrusion. It's not that she didn't like life in the giant T, but sometimes she just wanted her space from everybody.

And now was definitely a time like that.  
To start with, she needed a shower to clear her head, to cleanse herself. Nobody would be running around right outside, nobody would knock on the door and snap her out of her contemplations, in short, she would have peace.

She took off her boots, her cape, and everything. She couldn't help but look in the mirror, to see herself completely bare. Part of her didn't like being naked, especially after that run-in with Slade that had aged her Gods-know-how-much. But another part of her liked it, it felt free. She turned for the mirror, just to see if she was…well, good-looking. She stopped with a shock. Why should she care about her looks? She had someone who loved the way she looked, who loved her, and besides, what did she know? The only people she might reasonably compare herself with, were an alien and… she hesitated to think 'an anorexic', but she still found herself thinking that Terra did look like one, or at least one in recovery. Besides, she was a goth, normal rules don't apply to her when it comes to looks. A chill from under the door reminded her what she was doing naked in the bathroom: she was going to take a shower. All this thinking was taking up too much time.  
She let the water run, nice and warm. She felt it run down her face, her back, her butt…Now that she was relaxed, she could think clearly about this morning. She put some soap on her scrubbing glove, and started scrubbing while thinking about the possibilities.  
Had someone entered her mind? No, too subtle.

Had her father triggered something in her body? That couldn't be it either; every time he used his influence, symbols would appear on her body. That was just the way it worked, no exceptions. And she was certain he wouldn't let anyone else mess with his gem.

Maybe one Juro's sigils had a side effect she didn't know about? No, that was just plain ridiculous. There was no reason for that to happen, not even accidentally, especially without her getting some warning.  
She continued washing herself; it relaxed her. Her body was more sensitive than usual, like it wanted to be touched even when she didn't. It wasn't her period, either; body control means full body control, and that was one thing she did have under control. So what was wrong with her?  
She realised she'd been standing in the shower for forty minutes. The steam from the hot water was filling the room. Maybe she was just going through a phase…

Someone knocked on the door. Even before she asked, Raven knew it was Juro. She used her power to open the door. She peeked out from the behind the shower curtain, it was him alright. He had his mask on, but that didn't lessen the effect he had on her. She shook again, her heart started beating really fast, and her throat got dry.

"Are you okay, Raven? It's not like you to just let somebody walk in when you're...well…"he tried to keep his eyes high, but only managed with a lot of effort.

"I'm fine, Will, just… wondering," she said dreamily.

"About what?"

"If you would join me, that's all."

He gasped a little, but the look in his eyes said he understood. She stepped out from behind the curtain, watching his covered eyes go all over her, pleased at the effect she had on him. She walked up to him, calmly, and locked lips, this time for real. With no clothes on, it felt even better than in her vision, just the fabric of his costume…he still reminded her a little of Malchior, only better, against her bare and sensitive skin. It felt good in her mouth as well, their tongues slowly caressing and teasing each other. She drew closer to him, and moved one of hands from her back to her butt. That was better. Now the other hand… gently she guided it between her breasts, down over her bellybutton, a little to the left over thigh. He pulled away, and looked her in the eye. He was so close, he hesitated, he didn't want to rush going for her…

Knock, knock.

"Come on Raven, I gotta go. Juro's already given me enough pain for one session, don't tell me you're gonna do a water torture to boot?" Beast Boy came half-crying.

She got out of the shower as quickly as she could, wrapped a towel around her and quickly made her way to her room.

TTTTTTTTT

"Well, you sure took your time," the pink Raven teased. Raven had already talked to all her other aspects, to steel herself for what she'd hear.

"Are you doing this to me?" Raven asked menacingly," Are you making me lose control?"

"Come on, you know me better than that. Oh wait, you don't, you've ignored me for about ten years. Anyway, your problem isn't mental; it's physical. Welcome to the wonderful world of infatuation, Rae, your body's being adjusted as we speak."

Now Raven panicked. Body adjustments, in her experience, never led to anything good.  
"What do you mean, 'adjusted'?" she shouted.

"Well, your skin gets softer, your heart rate goes up a million miles an hour every time your man shows up, and of course there's your standard hormones. I wouldn't worry, Raven; you're just getting horny, is all," the pink Love Raven narrated. Only now did the original notice that her pink counterpart looked a little different. Her legs were longer, more slender, and her breasts were more…petite. All in all, she had more of a nice athletic look, and when Raven realised the whole thing her heart sank.

Her love aspect had turned into what Juro must have felt was the perfect girl. And that looked a lot more like the real Raven than before.

"How do I stop it?" she demanded.

"Aw, come on, why would you want to stop it? It's nice, isn't it? You've finally got a real man in your life. Well, boy, maybe, but still… 'A good man is hard to find'. Or was it 'A hard man is good to find'? I forget. Anyways, there's no reason to change this. You'll learn to enjoy being like this, and it's really perfectly harmless," Love Rae pleaded.

"No, it isn't. I don't do horny. I don't do slutty. I am an independent woman, with full control over all her bodily functions. This whole… mess needs to be solved right now. I can't go around fighting bad guys with my head in the clouds!" the real Raven ranted. Good thing she was in Nevermore, too, or someone would have heard her.

"If I were you, I wouldn't worry about my head. Your issues are with a different part of your anatomy," came the joking reply.

"Simple answer…where…do I go…to stop it?" Raven was almost wrapping her fingers around her Love aspect's neck, so the latter decided to give up.

"First you separate your body's impulses from the others, then you put a lock on it. That way your body will always meet a barrier when it's sending you messages. Does that satisfy you?"

Love Raven looked sad at saying that, so the black and blue-clad witch decided to simply go forth and do just that. She returned to the real world, meditated to get in the right mindset, then went back into her mental landscape and put a lock on her physical impulses. She gathered all the power she could muster for it, and it felt overwhelming, but when she was done, she felt… relief. She looked at the new vista. It had been a volcano just now, but all that remained was a cold and arctic plain. She wondered if she'd done the right thing, then silently cursed herself for doubting. Of course it was right: this was no different from controlling her emotions. She had to do this, or it would interfere with her life.

When she woke up again, she found it was evening. That was the end of it; she was in control again. It had taken her almost an entire day, but she had control now. She could relax when she was around Juro…oh no, Juro!  
He must be worried. She'd said nothing was wrong, so he'd have left her to sort it out for herself, but she'd also avoided him all day. She had to make it up to him. She still had some time before dinner…

TTTTTTTTTT

Well, things were okay between Juro and Raven. After apologising for her… weird behaviour, she invited him to join her for a night out. He didn't mind tagging along for a night of goth bars, after all; he was open to all ways of life. Or death, depending on how one looked at it.

It was nice to be around again. Raven had all but forgotten why she'd been drawn to the goth scene since her arrival on Earth. The depressing poetry, the flirting with horror, but all the while innocent little fun… it cheered her up, in a morbid kind of way. It reaffirmed that not every horror was, in fact, something to be horrified about.

And for the daughter of a demon who was known and feared on half a dozen planets, that was quite reassuring.

Juro didn't seem to mind the atmosphere either; he just had a way of… adapting his mood to all of it. She loved it. Of all the times she might feel right at home, this was definitely the closest. After all the poets were done, and Juro thought to call it a night, Raven went for a walk home with him. There was nobody in the streets, and nobody would dare mess with two Teen Titans anyway.

"I'm sorry about… you know, today," Raven started to apologise again. She was sensitive about this sort of thing, and she wanted to get it out of the way.

"It's okay, Raven. If you need your space, it's your call. You know if you need help, all you have to do is ask," Juro replied.

"I know, and thank you. I just… have to get used to all this, you know. You've made quite an impact on everything, and everyone. Me especially. I'm not used to… having someone the way I have you," Raven wasn't sure about her choice of words, but she knew Juro would understand. He could understand everything she said to him. And if he didn't, she could make him…

"It's okay, Raven. I understand if you need time. There's nothing wrong with that. Everybody gets that sometimes," he explained.

'Yeah, time,' Raven thought,' time is what I need. Time to figure out exactly what I want, and what I plan to do in order to get it. But, don't I know already? Where am I going with this? I knew what I wanted when I put that spell on him. I did it to make sure everything would be fine in our love life. So why would I doubt now? Why wait?  
Suppose I just skip the preliminaries and go straight to the finale?' Raven made up her mind. It didn't make sense for her to hold back on anything now that she didn't need to. Why should she?

"Do you want to go somewhere?" she asked him.

"Like where?" he replied.

"Somewhere up high," she looked around the empty streets to towards a skyscraper," there. I'd like to see what's up there. Maybe the cold thin air will clear my head."

He looked at her intently as she said it. He must have known something was wrong, or had been wrong, and she needed clarity. He didn't see any harm in it.

When she'd lifted them both all the way up, Raven felt the thinner air clearing her head. It made her feel a little groggy, but that didn't matter. Juro looked over the edge of the roof, at the long drop. There was a railing, of course, but that didn't do anything to make it look less deep. Strangely, she didn't feel cold at all, even though her leotard left her legs uncovered.

"You've certainly got a nice view from here," he stated.

He had his back to her, and she looked at him saying:

"Yeah, it is a nice view."

He turned around, looked her in the eye and asked:  
"Feel better?"

She didn't answer. She just returned the look, got closer and took his hands. Her heart, this time, wasn't racing. Her head was feeling a little light, but that was probably just the altitude.

"I feel a lot better, thanks. I guess I just got… insecure about myself. But it's over now. I know what I want now. I know what I'm looking for. And I want you to be a part of it."

He smiled. She smiled back. They kissed, definitely for real, and then she did it.

When their lips parted, she struck him. She wrapped his hands and feet in her dark energy so he couldn't move, and used a telepathic attack to cause static in his mind, effectively stopping him from wopping out.

She had him trapped now.

Perfect.

TTTTTTTTT

"Raven? What are you…" she stopped him by gagging his mouth. Funny how her power seemed different now. She didn't project just shadowy things anymore; it had hardened into an actual fabric. That was weird.

"Quiet," she said menacingly," not one more word from you. You don't get to talk unless I let you. You're mine now. I've spent too long waiting for just the right slave to show up, and I won't drop out now just because that stupid spell is half-symmetrical. You're stuck, little boy," she said, leaning in closer to his hovering form," you can't move and your powers don't work unless I want them to. So all I have to do now… is finish what I started. You already feel me tugging at you, don't you? A little tingle in your chest that always points towards me… I should have done it right and proper from the first time. But I can make up for it now."

She stepped behind him. Juro really couldn't do anything. His powers depended on his mind being able to shift freely, to go random. With Raven's telepathic influence jamming it, he couldn't go random. All the mental channels he got had static on them. She was too strong. He couldn't break out, and more frighteningly, he didn't know how to stop her. She wasn't possessed, she wasn't replaced by a double, this was all her. And when he felt her shadow powers ripping through his costume, baring his back, his heart sank.

Whack!

He'd never taken a hit like that in his entire life, but Juro could tell she was holding a whip.

Whack!

The pain seared through his body. The first wound started to bleed. He had trouble keeping his thoughts clear. Why was she doing this?

"Enjoying the pain, are we?" she gloated," You only have yourself to blame, you know; if I could just enter your mind and take you over like that, I would. But now, who knows what kind of death-traps you have in that messed-up head of yours?"

Whack!

That one came right below his neck. He felt the tug of submission at the back of his mind… So that was her plan. She'd keep hitting him until he couldn't stand the pain, until his mind reached a point where nothing registered but her. She would literally beat him into submission.

She came to his front again. Now she covered his face with her new, almost rubber-like power. It constricted his breathing, and blocked everything from his eyesight. He tried desperately to think as she bared his upper body and ran her fingers down his chest, before…

Crack!

She'd gone up here to think, Juro reasoned. She had problems, no doubt about that.

Whip! Crack!

That tore a gash across his belly. He forced himself to keep thinking. Why had she started at his back? Why cover his whole face, instead of looking him in the eye?

She hadn't planned this, he realised. She just did this out of some sick, twisted gut instinct. This wasn't at all like her.  
She was learning, he thought. With every strike of the whip, she enjoyed herself more, and his struggles only enticed her further. By the time she'd forced him into submission, she'd be addicted.

And who would she go after next? If she decided she liked being cruel, she wouldn't just stop. She'd go after the Titans, all of them, and one by one they'd be under her dominion in no time flat. He was the biggest challenge…

Whack!

She went for his thighs now. His whole body was almost covered by her shadowy fabric. It felt tight, but it stretched like rubber whenever her blows caused him to spasm. She could probably keep this up for hours. She must be counting on him to put up a good fight, to struggle just so she could have the fun of tormenting him longer, until the inevitable happened and he submitted.  
Hang on a tick.

She was enjoying the fact that she had to torment him to make him a slave. Suppose he beat her to it? He couldn't use any powers linked to his changes of mind, but he could still change his mind regardless. It was risky, but it was his only recourse.

Whack!

He let his head hang. Raven didn't understand.

"Are you ready to obey?" she asked. She tried to sense if he was faking submission, without actually going inside his mind.

"Yes, Mistress Raven," came the sullen reply. He wasn't acting. She couldn't detect anything coming off him that suggested it. She had him now, completely. She let down the mask she'd put on his head. She made him kneel down, eliciting stretching noises from his new outfit. His other costume was completely torn to bits. The idea that he was covered only and completely by her will excited Raven all over.  
She lifted his chin up. He had to look at her as she said this.

"You're mine now, for the rest of your life. No matter where you are, no matter what you are doing, every single moment you will be thinking of me. Everything I tell you to do, you will do. Your every joy will come from serving me. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mistress Raven," again a monotone reply.

"Good boy," she cooed as she petted his head," now we won't tell anyone about this, will we? And if I want to take anyone else as my own, you will assist in every way possible."

"Yes, Mistress Raven."

"Atta boy," she replied. He was a good boy, though. Now that she had him housebroken, she didn't have to worry about him disobeying.

'But it's not like you had to worry about that in the first place', something inside reminded her.  
She knew that was true, but she didn't want to believe it. No, she had to test his loyalty some more.

"Spread out," she commanded. He slowly spread his legs and raised his arms in the air. She used her power to bare his back again. The bleeding had stopped from the pressure she'd put on it, but still she took the whip and cracked open new wounds over the first batch.

Crack.  
He didn't budge. He didn't even give off a little gasp.  
Whack.  
Why wasn't he resisting? He was stronger than this. She knew he was.

"Why aren't you resisting?" she shouted at him.

"I cannot resist you, Mistress Raven," he replied," I am yours, for all eternity."

Why didn't he object? This wasn't normal. The appeal of the whole thing had vanished into thin air. She could whack him all night, but it would never satisfy her. And nobody else would be quite as fun to enslave. So what could she do with him now? There was nobody to show him off to, and humiliating him further just didn't seem like a fun prospect. She could have her way with him, physically.

That's what she wanted. Physical attention. That's why she'd done this; for her body. Her body needed this, and she needed Juro's full attention, as well as his complete obedience, to get it properly.  
'But you didn't need to force him into it,' that little voice said,' he'd have done it, if you'd just asked. That's why he's like this, Raven. You didn't force him. He gave up his own free will for you.'

She froze. He sat there, unaffected. She wasn't jamming his mind anymore, but that didn't change his expression. Raven panicked. What had she done? Why? The whip was still in her hands. Where had she gotten that? Juro's costume lay in tatters beside her. He was only covered by what she'd covered him in. She knew what had happened to him, but she couldn't figure out why. If he'd really shifted his mind to willingly submit to her, then he could shift back as well.

She took him back to the T-Tower. He didn't say a word, and he wouldn't unless he was spoken to.

TTTTTTTTTTT

She got him into her room. What to do next? Heal his wounds. Her powers didn't work. Why weren't they working? What was wrong? This whole thing was just like… just like… she resigned. She finally knew what her problem was. She told Juro to lie on the bed, to rest, and not wake up until he stopped thinking about her. In the meantime, Raven would dress him with another costume of his, over the layer of shadow covering his skin. She didn't manage to cover him up entirely; the thing was only thin enough around his legs. After that, she had to meditate…

Juro woke up to the sound of Raven chanting her old mantra. He tried to get up, and found that his back didn't hurt as much as it felt rusted and chafed. He didn't see Raven in that dark room but he recognised a silhouette. From there the chanting came. It stopped when he tried to speak, the sound caught halfway in his throat.  
"You're awake," Raven said. She was wearing a black spandex outfit that covered her entire body, from head to toe.

"Why are you wearing a zentai suit?" Juro asked. Raven approached him to the bedside. She took off the mask concealing her face.

"The sensations from the suit help me keep track of my bodily impulses. If I feel the same thing all over my body, I can tell which points are most sensitive. In Azarath we use this all the time, to learn control our body, to control our…" she trailed off, embarrassed," I'm sorry about what I did to you, Will. I'm sorry for what I tried to do, what I fantasised about doing… it's just so…" she didn't know what else to say.

"You've always controlled your body, your impulses," Juro guessed," but you never had to deal with boys, so some impulses you didn't even know you had. Is that it?"

No reply came.  
"I don't hold it against you, Raven. It's just… an accident. The only difference between tonight and any other accident is that this happened in your mind. You couldn't help it, Raven," Juro firmly said.

"I didn't do this on a high of emotions, Juro. I did this with a completely sober mind, knowingly and lucid. I hurt you, and I wanted to hurt you more, to make you someone who would indulge every sick fantasy I could care to come up with. My father is a demon, Juro. I've always tried to fight the evil influence, but now it turns out that even without it, I'm just bad person," she sobbed.

"Raven, you are not a bad person," Juro insisted, lifting her chin a little to look her in the eye," a bad person wouldn't have stopped when I submitted. If you were really evil, things would have gone a different way. Trust me, I know. A bad person would have done this before, and a lot worse."

He didn't mention anything about her father. Did he know already, or had he ignored her confession about her family? That didn't matter. She had to get something else off her chest.

"I've had… a few weak moments in the past," she tried. He stared at her, surprised.  
"I just wanted to see what it looked like, what it sounded like, to have someone say they love you. I just… can't understand why it's gotten so bad now," she lied, to hide her embarrassment.

"I think I do," Juro said," Robin told me about me about what happened when BB brought in that movie 'Wicked Scary'. Your powers get warped when you suppress too much emotion, Raven. You didn't deal with anything, you just covered it up, whatever it was. That's why your powers acted differently," he saw right through her in that instant.

She knew it was true, but it still shocked her. He already knew her better than anyone else. This whole thing, they knew, had happened for one stupid reason: for all her self-control and discipline, she wouldn't admit that she felt…horny. That word buzzed through her mind…'horny', an ugly word for a feeling that only causes trouble. And she was stuck with it.

"I wouldn't admit it, Will," she confessed," I thought my body could do without… that, but I still can't help but feel like I'm missing something. I want something physical, but I don't want to force you to it. I've already got too much of a hold on you," she hugged him as she said it. He hugged her back, gently… how could he put up with her? She couldn't grasp it, but she didn't want it any other way.

"That spell sends energy through you, every time I think of you. Instead of sending power all over, I send it to you when I get emotional. It'll always pull at you, and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…"

He pulled her away a little, then lay her down on her bed.

"It's okay, Raven. If you just wanted to be touched, all you had to do was ask. It's fine by me."

"But," she interrupted.

"But nothing, Rae. I do love you, whether it's for the reasons you think I do or not, it doesn't change the fact I care for you. And this has obviously stressed you out a lot," he put his hand under her shoulder and turned her around," so how about we start off nice and soft, with a neck-rub?"

She felt his hand on her neck, gently pushing, relaxing, relieving everything. Fatigue caught up with her. He did care, she realised. He'd be there for her. And he already knew what made her feel good.

"Will?" she asked, softly enjoying the motions around her neck and spine," could you promise me something?"

"Anything," he replied.

"I know you change. You change everything about yourself, and I'm fine with that, but please, just promise me one thing. Don't ever change into someone I can't love. I won't force you, but it's just that I wouldn't know what to do. Please, promise," as she said it, fear entered her heart, and she faintly felt her father's influence because of it. She couldn't tell if there were symbols all over her body now, but she hoped not. She didn't want anything to ruin this perfect moment.

"I promise," he said, and for a split second, Raven felt nothing but happiness. Every worry she'd ever had just faded away for one, heavenly moment. In a blink of an eye, it was just her and Juro, and she didn't care what word she used to describe him. 'Boyfriend' and 'lover' both seemed to sum it all up nicely.

She fell asleep under his caresses, and she knew when she'd wake up things would be alright.  
Juro didn't quite know what to make of it. Raven had had a hard time tonight, he understood how and why, but the symbols that had appeared on her body puzzled him. They seemed strange to him, alien, so he removed them with a little bit of chaos magic and energy. They fell off like leaves on a tree. A little while after that, he realised she'd fallen asleep. She was so beautiful… he could stare at her all night. He'd ask her to heal his scars in the morning, or maybe he'd keep some of them as a reminder. His wounds were, after all, only a small price to pay. But for now, he'd leave her be in her dreams.

TTTTTTTT

Trigon and Slade were conferring in a lower dimension. Slade had gathered enough free energy from the city, at least for his master's mysterious purpose. A rustling of leaves was heard, strange on a realm consisting mostly of lava and rock. Symbols came floating by, and Slade recognised them as the marks he'd put on Raven on her birthday. The same marks that were to open the portal had now been removed. Slade did not question the meaning of it. Juro hadn't been there when he placed the marks on her, and they were hidden by means unknown even to him, but how…

"Wretched boy," Trigon rumbled," no matter. The marks only need to be place when the portal opens. But by that time, we will need more power. I have a task for you, Slade. The boy is too powerful for you to risk a direct attack. Spread my power, Slade. Spread my symbol through flame and fury, and I shall raise a demonic force to defeat these Teen Titans. And you… you shall be restored to flesh when my reign begins. Then you will once again have what you lost."

"Your wish, is my command, Master," Slade replied.

Far away, in a distant place not meant for mortals, hidden in a dark corner, there was a stirring. It drew no attention, though they were many who could have noticed. It was just a small stirring, as if somehow… Fate had taken a different turn.

End of Chapter 22

A/N 2: The main problem with pairing Raven with someone who doesn't know magic, is obviously that she may lose control at one point or another. Any hero who can't resist a mental attack by an experienced empath (come to think of it, will need to do something with that) is going to become her pet. Imagine this had happened to Beast Boy or Robin. Beast Boy's morphing power can only exert a limited amount of force, evidenced by the fact that Red X's goo shot can completely immobilise him, no matter what shape he takes. Raven can trap him. Robin also has a limited amount of force he can exert on his fetters, and he can be disarmed. That's not even mentioning the potential of her hypnotising someone by whatever means available; getting into their head, the ole' pendulum trick… you need a defence against that.  
Other than that; some things you don't need to remind me of if you want to review:  
-Raven never loses control? See 'Fear Itself', then ask yourself if feeling lust is a weaker emotion than fear. Keep in mind, Raven wouldn't have had much experience with either of them.  
-I change the POV in this chapter from time to time? Yeah, that's supposed to happen.  
-Raven alternates between calling the new Titan 'Juro' and 'Will'? I may have missed a few, but I think you'll find she calls him 'Will' when she tries to be comforting, gentle or apologetic, and 'Juro' when she just wants his attention, when she's saying something that should sound bad.  
-Slade and Trigon are up to no good, but I haven't actually introduced Trigon yet? I know, that's for later, when 'Prophecy' rolls in.  
-This chapter is longer than usual? Hope you like it, because this sort of thing will be the norm from now on. I'm trying to be more true to the 'feel' of the show, and that includes both chapter design and story design. For instance, there will be an all-Robins chapter in a while. Eight Robins, to be precise. And if you feel I give too much attention to my OC; that will also be taken care of. Just see the whole story as a "Juro season".  
-I'm bad at mixing romance with slight erotica? I'm aware of my limitations; that's why I'm trying to get rid of them.  
-I skim the borderline subjects too much? I realise putting a chastity belt on Robin, dildos on Terr's apprentice suit and Raven going nuts because she's horny may not sound like things that can actually happen, but keep in mind kids nowadays grow up a lot faster. For kids who fight bad guys, the situations are all the more extreme. Besides, it's fiction.  
There, now all you need to do is tell me whether you like this chapter (or this story) and preferably why.


	23. Lecture's over

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not Teen Titans, not Chaos Mages, certainly not 'The Invisibles' or 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy', not even the idea for the chapter title came from me. I got it off some show about people pretending to be superheroes, it never aired in Belgium so I'm not sure what it was like. The guy who won was Feedback, and his battle cry was 'lecture's over, time for some feedback,' so now you know. Why I picked that for this particular chapter, you'll see soon enough. There's also a reference to an 'M' rated story in this chapter, but you'll be hard-pressed to find it if you don't know what you're looking for. Many thanks to the Captain, by the way.  
Author's notes: 'Employee of the Month' is one of my all-time favourite episodes, I mean, every time I talk about Alex Soto (director of this ep, if memory serves) I always mention him as being 'The Man Who Gave Us Evil Tofu,' so trying to come up with a slightly altered version of it was tricky. Luckily, I have plenty of ideas, and the common sense to filter out the dross… I think. This chapter, therefore, shall be centred mostly around BB and Juro, but the other Titans do appear, of course, and there's even a few cameos at the end. There's also something unplanned for Juro's past, that just seemed to fall together so nicely it was creepy, even more so when I put in the DGM fic. Oh, and this time, there is a real overlap between this and DGM fic, I mean an event that is synchronised with the other one, not just references.

* * *

  
Chapter 23: Lecture's over. 

Just another quiet night on the farm… cows grazing, paw sittin' in his chair, maw knittin' somethin'… you'd think it was a perfectly ordinary day for them folk, until you noticed the flying saucer trying to snatch one o' them cows…

It hovered right above the one it had selected, and tried to snatch it up with one of its snatching apparatus. Already it and its compatriots had stolen a good deal of livestock, for reasons no Earthling could comprehend.  
Of course, the Teen Titans were no ordinary Earthlings, and when they finally sprung the trap, set by a techno-decoy-cow, the UFO immediately began swirling, trying to beat a hasty retreat. Cyborg had already leaped out of his cow suit, and latched onto the thing, his weight apparently enough to at least throw the craft off balance. Juro had wopped onto it from his hiding place, while Raven, Starfire and Robin began their aerial chase after leaping out of disguises seemingly made of paper. Robin had his new delta-glider, that allowed him to keep up, and the girls made good time flying on their own.  
Starfire launched some starbolts as the saucer came flying into the city, while Raven sent out black ribbons to try and catch it. Juro had the worst of it; between his airborne friends trying to blast the thing out of the sky, and fellow passenger Cyborg pounding its hull, Juro suddenly realised he lacked firepower.

He'd just grabbed on, with nothing better to do. Now he struggled to maintain his grip as the alien craft bobbed and weaved, actually he wound up mimicking Cyborg.

"Would you please stop copying me?" the metal Titan exclaimed.  
But Juro couldn't think of anything else to do. Summon his lightsaber? He didn't have enough energy for that anymore. A telekinetic blast? Even if he could get enough power behind it, which he couldn't, he'd fall off from the recoil. He couldn't invoke anything either; he wasn't exactly in a stable position. And his knives weren't really meant for piercing space-ship hulls.

The thing turned out to have not just a snatching mechanism, but also some kind of energy weapon, which streaked out across a building, the rubble blinding the girls temporarily and the beam itself taking Robin's glider down. It then scraped its passengers off on the corner of… well, a skyscraper, what else? Cyborg and Juro fell down, their fall broken by a conveniently placed force field.

"That's the third time it's gotten away this week," Robin said, annoyed.

"Well, there's no use crying over spilt milk," Cyborg replied," who's up for breakfast?" as it so happened, dawn just broke. Beast Boy, who'd been mysteriously absent through the whole thing, came panting, saying breakfast was definitely a good idea.

That's when he noticed the Meaty Meat Burger.  
Now Beast Boy had a vegetarian for as long as he cared to remember. He made a point of not eating meat on any occasion. So when Cyborg suggested they eat at the Meaty Meat, well… BB got over his fatigue quite quickly.  
Of course, Cy didn't pay any heed to the green teen's objections and came out with five burgers in hand.

Hamburgers are, after all, the cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast. (A/N: Got that line from Pulp Fiction, obviously )

The Titans went back home, to regroup, rethink, and for some… to try and improve their repertoire a little.

TTTTTTTTTTTT

BB tried watching the morning TV, but he was interrupted by the chaos mage.

"Did you notice anything during that fight this morning?" Juro asked.

"You mean apart from me being left behind?" BB replied.

"Yeah. Things have gotten weird now…weirder than before. I just couldn't cut it today, BB. I got on that saucer and just hung there. I had nothing," he admitted.

"At least you got in on some of the action. Me, I straggled behind from the word 'go'," BB retorted.

Juro gave it all a good thought. From the stories he'd heard, Beast Boy had been the main driving power in getting the Titans together. It was an underestimated role he'd played, really; Robin, Rae and Cy could have easily parted ways after getting Starfire out of her cuffs, when she first landed. If it hadn't been for Beast Boy tagging along, if he had reacted a little different when Raven or Cyborg showed their true colours, there's a very real chance Robin would have stayed solo, and Rae and Cy would have gone back into…well… seclusion. As for Starfire, she was unpredictable.  
It was trains of thought like this that made Juro stand out; he looked at the bigger picture, every minute detail that might have affected the very course of history. But now, he had other concerns.

"So what do we plan to do about it?" he asked, thinking aloud.

"Friends!" Starfire exclaimed as she walked in," let us not dwell on victories denied."  
At which she dragged them both off to the kitchen table and force-fed them Tamaranean… well, neither of them caught the name, and they weren't too keen on knowing anyway.

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"Something bothering you, Juro?" Raven asked, dodging a laser.

"Nah, it's just… I feel like I'm turning into a liability," he replied. He punched through the guns easily, directing enough energy to his hands to smash even steel and not feel it. Pity he needed his concentration so much for that trick, though.

"Stop simulation," Raven commanded. The machines slowed down, then stopped," look, I know you're not used to being yourself and all that, but really, nobody's gonna kick you out. You're a Titan, just like the rest of us, and nothing's going to change that."

"Rae, please don't. Really, don't. You know me well enough to realise that some little pep-talk doesn't affect me at all. The fact that I freed Terra, the fact that I helped the worlds go back to where they should be on the Improbability chart, none of that changes the fact that I now have absolutely no ranged power and only a moderate short-range power. I can only wop myself to places and hope that when I do, I won't get blown away," he confessed.

"But you're a chaote. If you're not happy with what you are, you can change it. So why don't you?"

_Okay, Casper, Rose, you try and stall them. I've got one more trick I can use…as much as I hate doing this._

"Juro? Hello?"

"_Name of a name, Will, where'd you learn to do that?  
Even Jim Crow couldn't do that…and he's twice as old as you. I mean, dude! King Mob is less scary than that! I'm less scary than that, and I'm half cancer!"  
-"Shut up, Casper, can't you see he's in shock? Will, can you hear me?"_

"Freud would have a field trip on me," Juro said.

"If you're worried about losing your grip, Juro, just say so. I can help. I've been there," she offered.

"I'd like that," he replied.

"_I'll make it alright, you guys. I'll fix everything. If I can make everything turn out alright, then I'll turn out alright. I know I can't join and I know I'm not strong enough, but I might be, someday. And when that day comes, I'll fix it so nobody has to suffer anymore "  
-"Come on, Ravager, we have get him out before we get the whole Anthill on our backs."  
-"I hear ya. Come on, Will, let's go. Your girlfriend will be waiting for you."  
-"She's not my girlfriend, Rose. She just confuses me. I don't need a pretty face, I need a sorceress to tell me I'm not alone. I need someone who'll never give me that look…"  
_"Come on, we'll go into trance together some time. I'll show you how we do things in Azarath," she pulled him up from his sitting position. _That look…_

'I've been there,' reverberated in his head. She felt she'd seen things as bad as he had, and he wondered… had she?

Was that even possible?

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"Oh come on, Cy, why won't you…" BB tried, but was cut off.

"Because I need to fix this fake cow. Robin'll want another stakeout soon. Besides, I don't do mopeds."

BB had tried, and he had failed. He needed some way to overcome his transportation problem, and a moped was his best bet. Only he didn't have the money. And Cyborg wouldn't build him one.

As it so happened, he came across Terra, the other thing he thought about all the time. Their conversation was…embarrassing for BB, and not worthy of mention in detail, mostly because he hadn't the foggiest about how she felt now, what she knew exactly, and whether or not she'd remember everything when, eventually, she got her memory back. In any event, she suggested he get a job, with the objective clarity amnesia seems to bring.

A job, huh? He hadn't thought of that yet. Technically speaking, he was allowed to, nobody could tell him he couldn't… but then, that didn't mean it was a good idea, either.

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Juro's cell phone rang. He was alone in his room, even Kai wasn't with him, gone training Terra again. Today he was teaching her Blind Bandit style… or some such nonsense. The cell phone demanded his immediate attention. It rang again. He hesitated. He knew what it was for, he knew he couldn't ignore it, but… he wanted to. He was done with all of that, he was normal now, or at least a Titan.

It kept ringing. Turning it off wouldn't help. He had no choice but to answer.

"Juro?" a voice asked on the other end.

"Ravager?" he replied.

"We need your help," she stated, matter-of-factly.  
"Again?" he pleaded.

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"No, to both of you," Robin replied, perturbed at being interrupted during some very important work checking up on Slade's past. He'd finally gotten a lead on his son and daughter, but fact was, the trail ended there. His son was in Africa and his daughter had disappeared into thin air a few months before Slade arrived in Jump City. Still, Beast Boy and Juro shouldn't have been whining. The saucer was ticking him off as well.

"I'm not giving you a moped, Beast Boy, and if you want to buy trading cards, you'll have to get the money yourself, Juro. Remember, we're on tax payer's money for a pretty good part," Robin knew they knew, but he reminded them again.

"Well, then I guess I'll just go looking for a part-time job," the two replied, in sync.

Robin also knew that was what they were really going to ask, and for the moment, he couldn't care less. He was determined to find Slade's offspring, hoping they might lead to some crucial information, like how and where he learned to fight, and exactly where he got his technology. And after that, that danged UFO had to be tracked down.

"So, you know anything we might do?" BB asked.

"I'm an accomplished chaos mage, BB, I already know what I'll do because I've made it possible," Juro replied," games testing at Nowa."

"Nowa? Oh, come on, dude, that's the enemy! Only reason they haven't been sued to death by Gamestation is 'coz they're too friendly. Besides, Nowa's crap," the green teen objected.

"Crap or not, Nowa needs testers, Gamestation does not. So that's where I'm going."

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"Alright, first we'll test you all on your gaming skills," miss Watter announced. BB looked forward to seeing what kind of games they were supposed to be testing. And the fact that miss Watter was quite good-looking in her business suit with dark sunglasses only added to his excitement.  
The games console was a little different from what he was used to. For one thing, the headphones blocked out all of the sound around him and only let the player hear what was happening in the game. For another, the controllers were heavy and had to rest bound on his legs lest he wear out his wrists. That wasn't a problem, though, because they worked with some kind of touch-screen. It responded to a touch so light he almost didn't feel it.  
The game loaded.  
Simulation terminated.  
"Huh? What the…" Beast Boy couldn't remember playing at all. It was… weird.

"Graphics are okay, sound's pretty decent, but the plot was just… bad," Juro pronounced his verdict. He'd shown up in civilian clothes, and used his real name to apply, in case anyone got wind he was a Titan. BB never worried, but Juro did, obviously, because he actually had a civilian past to take into account.  
"Well, mister, Thead, was it? You're the only one who finished the trial level. You passed. You've got the position," miss Watter announced to him, with as friendly a tone as she could. She smiled, but it seemed like a meaningful smile… not evil, but…hiding something.

"Perfect."

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Of course, with his friend's chaos magic failing to get Beast Boy a job as well, he was in search of a slightly less… demanding position. To go into detail would, again, be a waste of the reader's (and the writer's) time, but to fully understand what happened next, a brief summary is required.

He first tried selling vacuum cleaners, but found that he sucked at selling and blew it.  
Then he applied for a job as park clown, and while he was good at clowning about, he found the quality of his jokes were a joke in and of itself.  
With his expertise of animals, he tried being a vet's assistant… but when the vet misplaced his glasses and almost took BB for a client to be spayed, he resigned as quickly as he could.

His last option was no option: the Meaty Meat Burger. It had a sign saying 'Human Help Wanted', which didn't stop BB from at least considering the betrayal of his vegetarian philosophy and working for… Meaty Meat.  
He wouldn't… he couldn't… he wasn't like Juro… when he decided on a moral issue, he could not be dissuaded. Vegetarians had it bad enough without one of their superhero role models turning traitor.  
But then he saw the Tidwell 3000, the moped he wanted. It was standing on a pedestal, with those words that melted his resistance away like butter on a pan.  
"Employee of the Month Award."

Some guy named Bob, BB assumed it was the manager, came up to him and explained the obviousness of the situation; that the Tidwell was awarded to the Employee of the Month.

There were no other employees.

If he accepted… he'd have it in one month flat. One month… with a grudging look on his face, he accepted and donned the uniform. All he had to do was take orders and wait for them to come rolling off the conveyor belt to his left. Bob couldn't seem to get his name right, but BB didn't care. As Bob walked to the room in back, where the meat came from, the green teen made a mental note never to go there.

It was a weird position to be in, just noting the customer's orders, cashing in, and being surrounded by so much…meat.  
What was really weird, though, is that meat was the only thing they had. Even their drinks were meat juice.

But hey, he was going for the moped. Why should he care?

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"Have you initiated the program?" miss Watter asked her assistant. Their new tester was already running the game through its paces, and he had been the only one to see through their minor mindwipe in the first version.  
"No Ma'am," came the reply.

"Then do it," she commanded.

In the game world, Juro was a hero, trying to save a princess from an evil sorcerer. It reminded him of 'Chronicles of Sella', by Gamestation. It had been one of the most successful games of all time, and Nowa, having a history for near-plagiarism, took a suspiciously great deal of elements from it, only this was set in a space setting, not a phantasy setting.  
Now he was piloting his ship through the vastness of space, the stars outlined through his pilot window… the motions of it were hypnotic, almost.  
"Captain Valse?" a subordinate asked.  
"Yes?" he replied. Wait, he wasn't talking. This thing didn't have a microphone.  
"We're coming up on Mubu, sir. Going into stealth mode."  
"Good. Now all we have to do is get inside the complex, steal the plans and get out in one piece," the Captain summarised.

"How are his brain waves?" miss Watter inquired.  
"Changing already, Ma'am. The program seems to work," came the reply.  
"Once he enters, use the messages. Then we'll see if it really works."

"Captain! I think they spotted us!" a voice cried.  
"No kidding!" he replied in kind. Laser bolts came streaking past his cover, the sound of it sent his heart throbbing.  
It also distracted him from the soft voice in his ear saying 'Obey, you know you want to'.

"Captain!"  
'You can do this, Captain. This is your mission, your world. There's nothing else,' the voice came. He didn't hear it, yet it reached him. This was his life, and he would defend it and everything he stood for with all his might.  
He shot through the guards, and went in the face the next wave. He'd shoot and kill anyone in his way.  
He had to.

"Brain waves going into sub range, Ma'am," the assistant said.  
"Now we can say it works. Put him through the physical routine," miss Watter commanded.  
"Ma'am, that's at the game's end. He's not even halfway."  
"He can't tell real time from game time, and he'll accept any memories we give him. Besides, he's well under now. A boy that age… hit him with the physical now and he'll be under for life. Do it," she commanded.

TTTTTTTTT

After his friends had come to see BB at work, the customers at the Meaty Meat Burger got a little restless. They just kept pouring in, shouting orders faster than BB could relay. When it all became too much for him, he tried to call Bob for help. What was in that meat, anyway, that made it so popular?  
He went to the back, a place where he never wanted to go out of his own free will. There were bovine carcasses hanging on the walls (cow's corpses for the simpler minds reading this), stripped of skin, ribs showing below the meat… then they turned the other way and he noticed the computer screens on them. He suddenly realised he was in trouble.

When the army of Bobs appeared before him, and the missing cows turned out to be hooked to some energy capacitor… that didn't really calm him down.

"What is going on here?" BB asked, incredulous.

"We have removed these creatures from your food chain and replaced them with Newfu. In return, the energy they produce will serve to destroy your planet!" a deep, low voice boomed into the room. The Bobs started laughing at the sound, as well as the sight of Beast Boy looking surprised at so many Bobs. They closed in on him, slowly and menacingly.

"Wait, you mean all this time I haven't even been serving meat? It's this tofu?" he was actually relieved at knowing that.  
"Not really," the voice replied," the substance you call 'tofu' is derived from a plant called 'Glycine max', the soybean. Newfu, on the other hand, is a nutritious meat substitute derived from the Source."

Beast Boy, having just figured out the destruction of the Earth was imminent, turned into a triceratops and crashed through the Bob army, straight to a pillar that rose from the ground, no doubt the throne of this insidious Source. He stood a few feet away from it as it rose from the ground, bracing himself for the fight of his life. He was prepared to face an alien menace not even Wicked Scary could match, he expected a horrifying, shapeless mass of unspeakable terror.

The Source revealed itself…

A tiny little lump of what did look like tofu, with a face on it and a squeaky voice.

"I am the Source!" it peeped.  
Okay, so it's not so horrific as he thought. No biggy.

TTTTTTTTTT

"Well, you've saved the Universe, Captain," the princess said. They were in the royal bedroom, and the atmosphere was… not unpleasant.

"Arousal at expected levels, Ma'am," the assistant resumed his report.  
"These boys… so predictable. Give them action to focus on, and they never even notice they're being programmed. Show them a willing little girl, and suddenly the blood moves from their brains to more important regions. Disgusting creatures. I'll be glad to be done with them," miss Watter spat.

"Yes, it's been a wild adventure, hasn't it, Princess?" he said. She inched closer to him, pressed her body against his, and slowly, tantalisingly, brought her lips to his.

'Well, that's enough of that,' he thought. He drove a fist through her gut, shaking her off balance. He even felt the impact on his fist. Pretty neat tech, he had to admit. He shifted his mind again, using the White Light technique, taught to him by his friends at the College.  
'There is no chair,  
there is no 'I am',  
the language to think in is not enough to hold the truth.'  
Feeling the subliminal programming fading away, he looked at the character that portrayed the Princess. What were the odds?  
"Blackfire? What are you doing here?"

"Ma'am, something's gone wrong… blood flow, brain levels… he's reverted back to normal. I think he's using the White Light."  
"He can't be from the Invisible College, we'd have noticed," miss Watter didn't like this," alright, then. Vacate the premises. I'll deal with him myself."

The building was evacuated, under the cover of a fire drill.  
Meanwhile, Juro sensed the disturbance outside. He tried to make a sigil in his mind…. If he could just… there. When miss Watter entered the room, she found not only the rebelling tester, but an alien with black hair and a strange uniform as well.

Juro took off the headphones and got up from his seat. Using magic he wasn't even aware he had, he changed his clothes into his Titan's costume, darts and knives on his belt, mask on his face, chaosstar prominent on his chest. Already the building started changing, the walls dissipating, turning almost organic. Juro was ticked off, to say the least.

"Nobody pulls a Zabzik on me and gets away with it," he threatened, clenching his teeth.

Miss Watter changed along with the building. She changed into something resembling an insect; exoskeleton flowing over her like liquid armour, hardening into what she knew was an indestructible shell, as she was a shell herself.

Juro knew she wouldn't be alone.

"Blackfire, stay behind me, and stay close. They're making their dimension overlap with this one, and if you run, their nanotech will give you cancer and you will die," he recited this as if he had seen this before… but neither of the two women there knew that he really had.

"A simple game to shift a subject's perspective on reality. With such an absorbing experience the subliminal messages are received almost instantly. The thought of dying makes them panic, or focus on survival, on their mission, and the messages go straight to their subconscious. When sexually aroused, their blood starts to flow all the way down, and their brain is even weaker to attack, ready to be permanently affected," miss Watter muttered through her newly grown mandibles.

"But you can never reach a chaos mage or an Invisible with that technology, because we can send messages to our subconscious as well. We know when you're messing with our heads, at least that way. It's not supposed to work on us, just the general public. Just the kids who haven't even had time to form an opinion for themselves," Juro spat, drawing a knife. This one had kunai shape, a ninja's knife, like an arrowhead with a long handle.

"You can't be of the Invisible College, boy. We'd know about it," the insect thing prepared to lunge as a shadow appeared from behind her. The room they were in had already transformed into something from a nightmare: walls with a heartbeat, a floor that had tendons, and some strange kind of fungus that grew from a point in mid-air.  
"You're right, I'm not. I'm something far worse than the Invisibles. Go on, strike at me, you mindless drone, and bring your Archon friend to the party. I haven't fought one of you in a while, but I guess it's like riding a bike," he boasted, even as the Archon appeared in full form. Its gangly limbs and long head made it look like a horror movie monstrosity.

Blackfire broke the confronting silence by launching a starbolt at the insectoid. It bounced off, and should have at least seared it, but it only drove her back an inch.

"Fool! This armour can absorb energy and bounce it back! I am indestructible!" miss Watter shouted as she lunged at the pair.

Juro took his kunai and sliced through her armour like butter. He cut her throat, not enough to kill her, but just to cut, just to let her know he could.

"True, your armour cannot be destroyed. But a simple weapon with a properly charged sigil can still make it… change shape in its wake. So come up with something else, miss Watter," Juro calmly said.

Then came the Archon. A being from another dimension, set only on making the entire human race submit their free will, this thing was, for most, a tough nut to crack.

Of course, once you knew it's weak spot, it was a pushover.

"Sub-mit!" it commanded. The mental attack hit hard, but Juro managed to shield himself from the worst of it.

"Now who might this be? The King of Tears? No, not scary enough. The King in Chains? Not likely. Ah, but… The King of Inner Void?" he guessed.

It broke off its attack.  
"I'm right, aren't I? You specialise in causing people to lose themselves, you operate through addiction and obsession. The egregores you work with include Asmodeus and his offspring, as well as the Marlboro egregore," he said as miss Watter tried to comprehend how he'd pierced her defences.  
"But it's not your real name, is it? You Archons, you never reveal your real name, because anyone who knows can command you, make you leave, even destroy you. Now, me having read the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the most comprehensive aggregate of knowledge in the Universe and perfectly capable of looking you up, you just have to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?'  
Well, do ya… punk?" he threatened.

The King of Inner Void considered the possibilities. This one was no Invisible, yet he had resisted. No doubt he knew the Invisibles, otherwise he'd not have been able to perform the White Light technique. Already he felt the tug of another dimension opening, and he knew two dimensions overlapping with this one could even destroy him. He took the dazed miss Watter with him, and left the building, returning it to normal.

Juro took Blackfire outside.  
"What just happened in there? Why did you save me?" she asked, incredulous.

"I just fended off an attack from an otherdimensional god and his world-altering nanotechnology, as well as his mindless servant, who sought to bring a brainwashing game unto the market to enslave teenagers and probably little children as well, so they can prepare for global domination once the world ends in 2012. I saved you because… that's what I do."

"What do you…" she tried.

"I figure, for all the things you've done to your sister, you are still a living sentient being, trying to live. I'm giving you a second chance. Leave town, and quit trying to get even with Starfire. Find your own Robin, if you want to. After all, there's no real reason to hold a grudge, is there, when it all comes down it?" he asked.

She didn't answer. She just flew off.

In the distance, Juro heard thunder cracking, and a very familiar kind of energy blast, as well as a flutter of wings. He didn't pay it any heed. At the other end of the street, a girl was waiting for him. Dressed in tight clothes, mostly nylon and leather, anyone else would have found her a strange sight. Her missing left eye added to it, as well, covered by an orange and black mask.

"Well, Rose, the Archon is gone, and I don't think the C.E.O.s at Nowa will want to work with the Archons again," he summarised.

"Thanks," she said in reply," and you know I wouldn't have asked if…"

"I know. How are they?" he asked.

"Absinthe is still in a coma, and the replacement we got for her got sucked into… I think it was an Improbability anomaly, like a black hole leading to alternative pasts and futures. We think he's still around, but we don't know where, or even when. Casper's still looking for him. You know where Bumblebee ended up after that. But we've got our eye on another one, now, I think you know her; that clone girl," she said.

"Dani?" he wondered aloud," I guess that would make sense."

"Yeah, that's the one. So with Casper, me, Dani, and you know Max and his wife, that makes five. Our cell is almost complete again," she said, with a sad tone in her voice.

"But you miss having Frank around, don't you?" Juro asked.

"No use crying over it," she replied.

An explosion sounded. Rose retreated into the alley, stealthily, mouthed a goodbye, and vanished. Juro stretched a bit, having sit still for too long, and announced, to no one in particular:

"Finally. Back to normality!"

And with that, he wopped away, and it's a good thing he did, because he was about to get caught in a cross-fire of a metallic sea serpent, a fairy with a gun, and a bunch of creeps that lived in trash cans and carried dung bazookas. That's not to mention the flying saucers and tofu-based clones about to chase a certain green teen on a moped carrying a sentient lump of meat substitute across town, as well as two mice riding a cow.

Normality is and will always be relative, and if the past teaches us anything, it's that some avenues are best left unexplored.

TTTTTTTTTT

After dodging the army of Bobs on his newly found/stolen moped, Beast Boy managed to get to the T-Tower. He ignored the calls Robin kept making to see if he could join the fray. It was pandemonium all over the city: flying saucers, monsters, and one bus carrying convicted criminals that had flipped upside down. Beast Boy didn't listen. He knew he could at least solve the flying saucer problem.

He put the Source on the table. Time for some interrogation.  
"Okay, how do I stop your bomb from exploding, how do I save the cows, and how do I stop the Bobs?" he demanded.

"Pahahaha! I'll never tell! Even if I cannot depart on my ship the device will still detonate at midnight! Your planet is doomed! Doomed, I say! Doomed!" the little lump thing squeaked. Apparently, it couldn't form more Bob clones outside its container, which was good. Determined to get the info he wanted, BB took a cue from his chaote friend and started a sick little mind game. He placed the Newfu Source on the centre of the table in the common room, on a plate, with fancy knife and fork next to it. He lit a candle for the proper atmosphere and got Terra in for a romantic dinner.

"What are you doing?" the Source asked curtly.

"Didn't I tell ya? I'm a vegetarian, and I just dying to try out this new nutritious meat substitute," Beast Boy replied, secretly thrilled at finally having being able to threaten someone with his eating habits.  
"You know, I can't remember anything looking so tasty. I wonder if you taste like Star's dishes," Terra added to the mental assault.  
The Source did not have a heart, it should be noted, but it was equipped with a rudimentary cardiovascular system, as well as things that in other organisms would be brains and hormones. This is an important detail to note, because without those, the Source would be unable to be scared out of its wits. As it was, it trembled ever so slightly, not being used to having predators.

"You're… you're bluffing… you wouldn't eat me…" it whimpered.

"Oh yeah? Well then lemme introduce you to my good friend: "Belgian Beul Barbecue Sauce," to add to the threat, he slowly let the sauce cover the now terrified edible alien. Being so horrified at the Belgian substance covering it, it gave up.  
The secret was water. Squirt the Bobs with water and they return to harmless lumps of Newfu. To stop the flying saucers, get the cows out of the restaurant and shut down the main power capacitor. That would also stop the countdown of the planetary bomb.

Piece of cake.

TTTTTTTTTT

When all of it was over, the Titans were exhausted. Beast Boy had saved the planet, Juro had… well, he didn't need to go into details. He fixed things at Nowa. Cyborg went to get something to eat from the fridge as the rest discussed what exactly had happened.

"So the saucers were made with basic nanotechnology from the cow's milk, and driven by their organic energy," Robin concluded.

"Yeah, like in Invasion X, where they keep humans as batteries. Same thing, except no mind control," BB noted.

"And where is the Source now?" Raven asked.

Everybody suddenly looked at Cyborg and the now empty dish.

"Oh," was all he could say.

"And the monsters? Where'd those come from? Where did they go?" Robin asked.

"Another dimension, created by human thought, based on a focal point of some kind, like TV signals or radio waves. The codes on the waves serve as a skeleton for free thought energy to make thoughtforms that are more solid than usual. More dangerous, too, because their purpose is less defined, and more prone to corruption. My guess is they're back where they came from," Juro replied.

"And the criminal transport?" Starfire inquired.

"A false alarm. The bus did tip over, but nobody managed to escape. The only suspicious thing they found was an open cage, but it was probably some psycho's pet mice," Raven answered," no big deal."

"There's one thing that bothers me about all this, though," Juro noted," if the Source could form a human clone, why didn't it shape its own cows? It could have just used that as a power source, if he could get them to graze enough. It could have invaded Earth, blown the whole thing up and we'd never know it."

"Cows are more complicated, Juro," BB replied, switching on the TV," if it wanted to do that, it'd also have to clone the bacteria that digest cellulose. I'm pretty sure it wasn't smart enough to clone on a microscopic level."

"Yeah, you'd have to be a genius to figure that kind of thing out," Cyborg agreed.

Indeed, their enemy had been of a slightly impaired intelligence. All in all, it was a good night. The world was safe, Slade had laid low for once, and the only thing that had really happened was a few mice that got away.

TTTTTTTTTT

Another quiet night on the farm. Cows grazing, going about their usual cow business.  
"Mmoo," said one.

"Mmoo," another concurred.

"Nnaarrff," a third said.

Genius, indeed.

End of chapter 23

* * *

Author's notes 2: What'd I miss? What'd I miss? Ah yes, Nowa and Gamestation, well, Gamestation represents Nintendo, Nowa Sony. I'm a Nintendo fan myself. 

What was with the cows at the end? I think it's fairly obvious. What the heck have the Invisibles got to do with anything? I'll get to that later.

What were those monsters I mentioned? Less obvious, but still… not too tricky to see.


	24. The Prophecy abridged version

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, the Invisibles, or the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I also don't own Spirited Away, which is what the first piece of the chappie is based on. Asmodeus is mentioned on Wikipedia, which was where I got most of my info from. There's also a Matrix Reloaded quote in here, as well as one from Pirates of the Caribbean and Monty Python's 'Search for the Holy Grail'… someplace, which I don't own. The Mark 2, by the way, was the second Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, introduced in the last part of the five-part trilogy, which did in fact pull realities together in order to destroy the Earth and all the other Earths with it. Maybe that clears up why Juro had to get the first Guide: it was a reflection of one reality, whereas the Mark 2 affected all realities. There's a Dutch song in there, which I don't own, and Cthulhu, which I don't own either, but who has a great series on Youtube and has made several appearances on TV, not the least of which was Billy and Mandy. They're mentioned in here as well, by the way, and I don't own them. Proofreading was done by my pal Jonathan this time, so any mistakes crept into the text are his, not mine.

Author's notes 1: After reading this chapter, you might think I'm being unreasonable, using a plot device like the one I'm about to use. However, the purpose of this story is and has always been to get people to think. If you have a Zen experience whilst reading this chapter, then my work is accomplished. If it makes you think about your own life, again, I've done my job. If you can only see this as a sorry excuse for a plot twist, then so be it. I have already introduced the Invisible College in the story, as a part of Juro's past, and to stop here would make it a plot hole. True, I'm being a little (okay, very) inconsistent, but that is what makes this story what it is. Without all the mind-boggling, it'd be nothing more than a Rae/OC fic. Same with the hypnosis elements I'm adding. I like mind-control, so expect more of it.

* * *

Chapter 24: The Prophecy (abridged version)

Slade pulled the hood over his head as he got off the boat. This was no place to be recognised. Where he was exactly, he couldn't say, but spirits dwelt here, and gods, as well as things in between he was unable to put a name on. His master's sigil would protect him from the influence of this place, but not from its denizens.

He bobbed and weaved through the crowd, ignoring calls from frog-like food vendors and… store owners selling items of magic. This wasn't where he needed to be; the big crowds stuck to the main road going directly to what he'd been told was a bathhouse.

He headed to the darker part of the town. Lanterns didn't quite glow here, even the symbol on his forehead seemed to have the glow sucked out. He was going the right way, now. The stores and their goods were… different. It brought back unpleasant memories to be here, but a few really good ones, too.  
"The innocence of a violently deflowered girl, sir? Guaranteed a life of leisure off a life of depravity," a busty woman offered. He assumed she was a succubus who latched on during a girl's first time, probably under less than enjoyable circumstances. He was familiar with some of the concepts here; many demons fed off negative human emotions and secreted a feeling of helplessness, a never-ending circle of haunting memories no-one could get over. Never-ending, until of course, their victims hit rock bottom. It was one such creature he sought: a very particular demon, one from mythology.

Right beside a brothel for the dead stood the little shop he sought, or maybe it was part of the brothel itself, who knew? The little shack had a sign on it Slade recognised immediately; a capital A inside a circle, with the lines reaching outside of its confines…that 'Anarchy' symbol punks like spraying everywhere. So it was true; that symbol really was diabolic. He went inside and found a very strange demon sitting in a chair. He had the body of a man, but three heads, one human breathing smoke, one a bull with its horns sliced off and another one that should have looked like a ram, but was in fact a black mass of coal in the shape of a ram's head. His legs, Slade knew to be those of a rooster, were bent in unnatural ways, and cracked as he moved. He had a serpent's tail, but it seemed cut off.

"Asmodeus," Slade announced," the Lame Demon, one of the Kings of Hell, and Corrupter of Children."

"You know me well," it wheezed through its human head," and who might you be?"

Slade undid his hood. The demon already looked haggard, but when it saw his face, it looked as though it was about to have a heart attack, if such a thing were possible.  
"Slade…Deathstroke…Wilson?"

"I haven't been called that in a long time," Slade replied," but let's not waste time. I'm here for business," Slade urged. In truth, he just wanted to get out ASAP.

"Of course, of course, but I fear you'll have to select your wares yourself. My daughters and I suffered a terrible attack, you see. My youngest is barely recovering, as my symbol feeds her as well, but my eldest cannot even appear here," it seemed almost emotional. How could that even be?

"Your daughters?" business or not, he was unaware of any offspring mentioned in any scriptures, and this was the sort of thing he should know, if only because his master might want to know as well.

"Oh, where are my manners; you've surely heard of them: Ana and Mia. Ana, could you come in here, please?" the demon called. Was that thing stuck to his chair? Was he that beaten up?

Slade didn't think on it long, for another creature entered the room. This one was a feminine abomination; she could have passed as anywhere between 12 and 20, and her frame was so petite as to defy the very mechanisms of life. Her skin had a strange way of clinging to her bones, as if that was all she was. She was almost entirely bald, and her every move was accompanied by a cracking of her joints. Her skin was covered in scars that didn't so much seem to heal as they did stop bleeding. Instead of blood, the cuts seemed to leak a fluid far thinner, more of a pinkish sort of blood. It didn't bother her, apparently. Self-inflicted cuts, perhaps? Different demons had different kinds of damage, after all.

"Greetings, good sir," she said, through a mouth that looked more like a tiny slit than anything to eat with," how may I be of service?"

"Why were you attacked?" Slade asked. His curiosity was piqued, now.

"A grave misunderstanding, I fear," she replied," our assailant was a fellow creature of darkness. Yet… I had never seen him, nor were any of my worshippers aware of him. Now I have lost almost all of my idolisers, I am near powerless. All I ever wanted to do was spread beauty, nothing more. Is that so wrong of me?" she almost cried, but the words and her tone finally gave away her true identity. Slade now knew without a doubt who this was, and he had to hide his utter shock. He knew thoughts and ideas could aggregate and become independent, even tangible entities, but never had he dreamed that it meant this. This was the way the world worked.  
He wasn't a god-fearing man, but he hoped his soul would never have to dwell in the same realm as these… things. To think he was speaking to the very incarnation of…

He composed himself, as Asmodeus explained more.  
"We suspect it may be the Ninth Immortal. He's lashing out at random, it seems. He managed to foresee the demonic migration and crippled six of Hell's finest while they were still weak and preparing to cross fully. It's quite a surprise, really; the Ninth hasn't been seen since…"

"I'm familiar with the legend," Slade interrupted," but I'm not here for stories, with all due respect. I'm here to reap what I have sown. I'm told you have what I seek," he looked at the demon intently.

"Ah yes, I see. Ana, show the kind man where we keep our… souvenirs," Asmodeus asked cryptically.

The anorexic demon girl showed him to a room in back, full of shelves populated by globs of a strange substance. It had the texture of mercury, the reflection of silver, yet it had its own colour, depending on the kind. So this was magic mirror substance; pure and condensed human creativity, the foundation of any work of magick in its purest physical form. And all of it was bad: they went past a girl's rape, a boy's broken heart, shame, hatred… all of it coming from mere children, and each one a deep scar.

"This is our storage room," Ana explained," an infinitude of destructive emotions, from those who aren't even fully grown yet. Impressive, no?"

"Most impressive," Slade concurred. The shelves stretched out before and above him as far as he could see. Impressive, indeed.

"And here," she stopped now," we have yours."

Slade looked all of the globes over. At face height he had his son, Jericho, when he learned the mutation was his fault. Next to that, two of his daughter's: when she gauged her eye out to prove her loyalty, when she found out he'd hired the assassin who'd killed her adoptive parents. One shelve beneath it contained her emotions when she ran away, and the thought that she'd never be truly rid of him. Seeing all of this through their eyes… he didn't feel regret or anything, but still… it stirred something. He kept looking

The ones he was looking for sat at the bottom. Two globs, both of which he was responsible for. Perfect separation, no emotions in them he didn't need…  
"These two," he said after a while," I'll take them."

"Very well, sir," Ana replied.

When they came back from storage, the Lame Demon had a query for Slade.  
"What do you want them for, if I may ask?"

"I need these two to overpower a group of heroes. One in particular has a bad habit of leaving surprises. Even after I kill him, there's a good chance he can interfere. So these two," he looked at the globs again," are a backup I cannot do without."

Asmodeus seemed to think things over.  
"Tell me, the one you speak of… would it be a black-haired chaos mage with an affinity for Japanese mythology?"

Well, he did name himself after a Japanese god, so…  
"Yes, that he is," Slade replied.

"And his powers… would you say they are erratic? As if he never fights from a truly bad situation? Tell me, please, does this callow youth have a particular obsession with justice and revenge?"

"How would you know all of this?" Slade asked.

"If I told you the Ninth seemed very confused, as if his past were unknown to him, would you say your enemy fits that description?"

Juro didn't know about his lineage, but Trigon did. He certainly fit the bill on that one.  
"Indeed. It seems we have a common enemy, Asmodeus."

"The one you speak of can be no other than the Ninth. There can't be two cretins like him in the Universe," Asmodeus spat," you may take these magic mirror globs, if I have your word that you will kill this arrogant youth. He has already angered enough demons to warrant a death sentence, but none can get a hold of him. If you find him, will you destroy him?"

"Oh believe, me, Asmodeus," Slade replied," it would be my pleasure."

TTTTTTTTTT

The world was in ruins. Flesh had been turned to stone. Her friends were mere statues, frozen as they were being clawed by innocent bystanders.  
'This isn't real,' Raven insisted. She knew it would be, though. Slade had shown her this: the image of the future, the near future. Too near, far too near.

She woke up, panting and sweating. She wasn't covered in symbols, but that didn't comfort her: Trigon the Terrible didn't do half-baked jobs, least of all when it came to his own daughter.

Nobody would understand, or at least not before giving her that look… but perhaps she might tell Juro? Given past experiences, he might know already. Should she tell him? Could she tell him?  
Meditation was, as always, quiet. It was a routine she cherished, more so with Juro around. He used different techniques, as well; today he focused on filling his lungs to full capacity, instead of just the bottom like most people try to do.  
Things were quiet still, up to noon. Terra seemed really pleased about herself, she only had two more weeks to go, three tops. In a way, Raven was happy for it. She had seen the worst of her, had tried to revive her without telling anyone, and now Terra was back, just when Raven's worst side would be forced to the surface.  
She wanted to be friends with Terra. Now that the world would come to an end, holding a grudge just seemed stupid, any way she looked at it.

She expected the alarms to go off in the afternoon, but silence ruled still. She told Robin she wasn't to be disturbed for a few hours, perhaps less. She and Juro would perform a little experiment to probe his deep unconscious mind, to see if he couldn't develop any long-range power compatible with his current state of mind. In theory, he could master any kind of magic; that was the whole point of chaos. The only downside was that some forms of magick required a very specific mindset and different kinds of energy. So today, Raven would put him in a trance, let out some subconscious patterns of thought and see what they could work with to form something on the long range. It was either that or change his personality…again. The Titans were finally getting used to the new Juro, and another shift would really, really be a drag to adjust to, for both parties.

So they went to her room, and as usual, Raven drew some protective signs, and cleansed her room in a spiritual sense, something Juro called a 'banishing'. She sat him down, took off his mask, and held his hands. She looked at him intently.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I trust you," he replied.

"You know I'll put you under, deeply under. You'll be exposing yourself to me, to see what kind of person you really are, deep down. You know I might… accidentally… change you into something… for me. You know how I…"

"I know, and I'm not worried," he reassured her," besides, it's kind of a turn-on," he joked. Her fears abated a little, Raven soundproofed her room with her shadowy powers. Even if the alarms went off, only a little blinking light would alert Raven, seeing as Juro's trance would have to be really deep and snapping him out of it too roughly might cause some nasty after-effects.

She grasped his hands a little more firmly, and let her thumbs touch his palms.

"Okay, Will… Juro… look at the crystal on my forehead. Focus all your attention on it and breathe normally," she directed him. He followed.

"Now, here's how this will work," Raven continued," I'm going to let you relax, go deep into a trance, so even the memories you repress will come out. I'll go deep into the recesses of your mind, but I won't actually be in your mind. Remember at all times, I'm sitting right here, I've got your hands in case you get scared or upset. Do you understand?"

"I understand, Raven," he said, a bit drowsy already. Her crystal had always been a good focal point for trances.

"Okay, now focus on my hands. Keep looking into the crystal, let your vision go a little wider if you can, but always keep looking at my crystal. You can relax when you look at my crystal, when you see my face," she almost stopped when she realised this sort of thing might unintentionally sap his free will, but she didn't dwell on it. They both knew they could trust each other.

"Relax… breathe deeply… you want to relax, don't you? Just leave everything as it is, it'll be there when you return. Just relax, let yourself drift away… let go of everything. Only look at the crystal. The crystal is all that matters. The crystal relaxes you. Listening to my voice relaxes you. You can feel your energy go through my hands, all your tension just floating away… don't worry, I'll take good care of it. Just keep looking at the crystal like that… and breathe slowly now. Go adrift. It feels good to let go."  
She kept this up for half an hour, at least. Will never broke his eye contact with Raven's shiny crystal, the colours displaying in the dim light. Of course, he was getting so drowsy, he kept rocking back and forth, and blinking like mad.

Time for the second stage.  
"Okay, Will, you can just close your eyes now. You're so relaxed, you can just lie down if you want to," she hovered to the back of him, always keeping his hands in hers. His head landed gently on her lap, and she had refrain from just petting his head a little… maybe later.  
"Now picture yourself falling down, ever so gently falling down on a drifting autumn leaf. You're not afraid at all, just looking at a blue sky as you feel yourself fall deeper, always deeper, like a leaf, back and forth, but always down. You don't even know which way is which, but you're so relaxed now it doesn't matter. All that matters is going deeper and deeper. You'll touch the ground soon, and when you do, you won't worry about anything anymore. What my voice tells you, you will see as real, and you'll only see what is real, not what you think is real. You'll know that I'm here, and that'll be enough to keep you calm, so calm. Tell me when you're there."

He breathed in… and out, so slowly she wondered if she'd overdone it a little bit. But still, after some time he quietly informed: "I'm there."

"Good," she cooed," you're in a park now, a really special park. It's nice and sunny, and the smell of summer is in the air. Can you smell it?"

He sniffed a little, and if it was even possible, relaxed even more.

"There's a lake nearby, a beautiful lake. You want to go to it, so you do."

She could tell from his face when he was there, anxiously awaiting her voice again. So then, she proceeded to the main event.  
"When you look into the lake, you'll see all the memories you cherish, all of the important events that made you who you are now. We'll start with the most recent one, one you really enjoy. Can you see the memory floating up? Describe it to me," she was a little anxious about this herself.

"It's you," he droned," you're trying to break my will, make me your slave. I'm panicking, but part of me enjoys it."

Raven was shocked.  
"You go through that much trouble just for me. I'm flattered to think a beautiful girl like you wants me, even if it is just… you know… Then when you snap out of it and I wake up you're so cute when you apologise," he continued," real, unfiltered beauty, you are."

Raven composed herself. Now for a tricky question.

"You like being wanted?" she asked.

"I need to be wanted," the reply came, a bit emotional, like a deep craving was voiced," I don't like feeling like a waste of life, and I hate the idea that every creature on this Earth dies alone," he grimaced.

"Okay, steady now, moving along, we'll deal with that later. Let's take a less recent memory, any one at all," she rubbed his hands to comfort him and help him focus," what do you see now?"

"I'm fighting Slade, and winning. He scared you, and I'm paying him back for it, but… there's something else. I'm all giddy for some reason, and my powers are magnified a thousand fold because of the worlds drifting apart again. It's like I remember something about Slade nobody else knows… like there's stuff nobody else knows about me. My power got boosted because I destroyed that Improbable Singularity or whatever it was, and without really knowing, I sent a backlash through time. I realised later I was the one who'd messed with the timeline. I compacted last winter, so it never happened. There was a line, with the planets… I thought what I did would stop it."

"But why? What made you do it?" Raven asked.

"I thought if I did what I did, maybe the end of the world would happen differently," he replied. How deep under was he? Raven couldn't be sure. But this did make one thing very clear.

He knew. Best to keep him in trance, continue her questions.  
"And what about the other girl, Random? Why'd you put her in with the Titans East?"

"I just do that. The shrinks say I have a Superman complex, or a Prince Charming complex, they argue about it. My psyche is incapable of handling the thought of a girl in trouble, even if she's a complete stranger. Putting Random there was the most sensible option at the time," he kept talking, even though the important bit had already been said.  
A Superman complex. Now that explained a lot. She'd finally reached the depths of his mind, the experiences that, despite his chaotic capacities, still defined who he was.  
"Do you remember where that feeling came from?" she persisted. This was what she'd been looking for; a suitable focal point.

"It was a dream I had. This girl… well, it started with some guy, 12, maybe 13, 14 tops. He got bullied a lot so he changed schools. He was really weird, and he didn't make friends easily. But this one girl… she was nice. She really seemed to care about whether he felt good or not. Then one day, he feel in love with her, just that. Only he never told her, he thought she was so beautiful she'd never really want to be with him. So he tried to look better, work out and all, but it never got him to where he wanted to be. And then… it happened… she… she," he quivered and tensed up again.

"Relax, just relax. Don't let the memory upset you; we'll get to another. What kind of fighter are you, Juro? How's your mindset in battle?" she stopped him before he snapped awake.

"I go rigid when I fight," he answered," focus only on winning, on who has to be defeated and who needs to be protected."

"So any power you develop, to fight with, would have to work from that rigid warrior mindset, right?" Raven hoped this was it.

"No, that's not it. When I assumed a space samurai persona, I had the mind of one first. Feels a bit like Buddhism, really. The rest followed from energy manipulation, self-modification into that identity. That's where those powers came from. Now I'm using Improbability itself as a power, and for that I'm constantly thinking how big the Universe really is and how unlikely some random things are. My powers are a part of me the way my mindset is, everything's connected to everything."

Something occurred to the witch then. He was in a trance, so he could only speak the truth.  
"So your power… reflects your mindset, your metabelief?"

"Mm-hmm," he hummed.

"And as a chaos mage, you've had experiences with lots of different mindsets, huh? Changing your beliefs, which would change your powers?"

"Yeah," he faintly replied.

Juro probably hadn't counted on Raven using this line of questioning. A psychological profile of his subconscious, that's what they'd been aiming for. But while she was at it, she might as well go the whole nine yards.  
"What other powers have you had, Will?"

"I have had Death in my hands, and the Form of the Sleeper. And that aura, afterward, to look harmless, even though my natural aura was contaminated after taking the Form. I just wanted people to stop looking at me like that."

She leaned in closer.  
"Like what?"

"Like I'm evil or dangerous just because of what I can, and not the way I am. I could understand if people hated me for being a jerk, but I try to be a nice guy. And then they give you that look…"

'That look'… rang in her head. She knew that look, herself, all too well. Even as a mere child…  
That's when she noticed the flickering light. How long it had been doing that, she couldn't say. The alarms were going off, and she had to get Juro out of trance and battle-ready.

"Okay, we're leaving this place now. You're floating back up, up, still up," she lifted him, using her power to support him evenly, until he'd returned to his original sitting position," and when I snap my fingers, you'll wake up, and you'll feel fine. You won't remember what's been said here, but you'll know I know, and that'll be enough. Do you understand?"

"I do," he replied. Somehow she'd expected those two words in different circumstances.

She snapped her fingers. He woke up, slowly, all stiff-jointed. Raven used a little of her healing powers and acupressure to remedy it.

"Come on," she said, putting her hood on," we've got work to do."

TTTTTTTTT

Indeed, they had their work cut out for them. Slade was on a seemingly random rampage in an abandoned part of town, sending flames all over for no readily available reason. It couldn't be good, though. Looking at the devastation, Juro realised he hadn't quite appreciated the full scope of Slade's new powers. For one thing, the fireballs were really dangerous. What struck his attention, though, was the fires Slade had caused. The structures that were burning didn't do so in a natural fashion; they had an unearthly glow to them, like the light they gave off was accompanied by an aura of darkness. What was he trying to do? It had to have something to do with the symbol on his forehead, and Raven.

They all came at him from behind, ready for battle.

"Ah, my old friends the Teen Titans," he chimed, turning around," I'd love to chat, but as you can see, I'm working now, so if you don't mind…" he turned his back at them again and sent another flame wave across the street.

Robin and the others surrounded him, Robin taking his stance right in front of the villain's face. It didn't make sense to anyone: normally he'd have started fighting them right away, especially with that big an advantage. Nevertheless, Robin kept his guard up, ready to split skull.

"What are you up to, Slade?" Robin demanded," what does that symbol mean?"

"This?" he pointed to the fiery S shape with two teeth in its curves, "this is the Mark of Scath, it'll be really popular soon. Oh, and Robin? You just made my day."

He launched a ball of flame, narrowly dodged by the Boy Wonder, and at that point, it looked as though all Hell broke loose.

Slade bolted away, flames trailing from his hands and feet, propelling him into his flight, with six angry teens right on his back. Starfire was the first to catch up, and she slowed him down a bit by peppering him with a flurry of starbolts, but her attack was cut short, literally. She heard a 'crack' and a 'snap', and the next thing she knew was a stinging sensation along her right thigh, and blood dripping down. Slade brought his black energy whip to bear again and again, tearing open Star's shoulder, her breast and finally he struck a blow to her face, nearly plucking her eye out. If she'd had the time or presence of mind, she'd have thought this manner of attack was something Raven could also do with her magic powers. As it was, she plummeted to the ground, barely caught by her robotic friend.

Slade didn't see her landing, though, as a green bat flitted by his face, blocking his view. He grabbed it in mid-air and chucked it to the ground, where it became a human, or something that looked like it. Beast Boy was silent and feral, something Slade didn't see often from that one. He only needed the look in the green boy's eyes to tell him what he was thinking.  
'This is for what you did to Terra.'  
Slade jumped over a triceratops' tail, only to be rammed into the Earth by a green gorilla. He planted both of his feet squarely in its chest, driving it back a few inches and giving him the split second he needed to jump upright.

A blue sonic blast streaked by his face, and two birdarangs dented his mask, knocking him further off balance. But he recovered, still, and his mask came back into place and form.

"Really, Titans, you're making this too easy," he goaded," I haven't even had another crack at your two mages."

Raven and Juro had stayed at the back, Raven to heal her friend, Juro to check the fires. Slade had blazed over the ground just now, but that didn't start any new fires. And the fires that had been started seemed to grow, rather than spread like a normal fire.

He had a really bad feeling about this.

"Whatever you're planning, Slade, it won't work. We will stop you," Robin called out. There was a comfortable distance between the two parties, and the spot they were in was nice and open, the only building left unburned an old library.

"Stop me? Come now, Robin, you can't really stop me. You don't even know what I'm doing. And I'll bet you don't even realise I've just finished," he waved towards the flames and in reply, their intensity doubled, as well as their height.

Juro's bad feeling only got worse.

"Starfire? Could you get a higher view for us, please?" he asked.

She didn't need to fly too high, nor did she need to worry about being taken down again. Slade just stood there amidst the debris, with the library in the background.

Starfire confirmed Juro's fears.  
"He has burned his mark into the ground," she said, still shaken from her defeat.

"That means he's drawing power, no way to stop it," Juro recounted," but for what? And to where?"

"The answer to that is in that library. I have another message for you, of sorts, but I'm only allowed to give it after you've entered and seen what lies beneath. So I'll tell you what; I'll let you pass by me and I'll wait right here. Except… for you two," he pointed towards Raven and Juro," you two… I'll deal with right now. The rest of you can go in. Or you could just try and fight me all at once. I won't run this time, I promise. Scout's honour," he joked.

Robin was the first to strike, extending his bow as far as his jump alone wouldn't carry him. He hit Slade diagonally in the neck, right under where his jawbone was, or should have been.

Slade didn't budge.

Starfire veritably bombed him, her bolts larger and her face wilder than normally. Cyborg's sonic cannon joined in to result in an implosion, then an explosion leaving their foe in a smouldering crater.

Even with his form bruised and battered, Slade didn't move, he didn't even bother to regenerate.

Juro and Raven stayed back, unsure of what to do. Their friends seemed beyond reason now. It got Juro thinking.

"Why would he want to focus on us? He doesn't just want petty revenge on me, it's for a purpose. What's he trying to do, Raven?" he asked the baffled witch.

"You know what he's trying to do, Juro, you know his master," she replied. In fact, he knew the cult that used the Mark of Scath, so he'd figured it was a minor cult-leader they were dealing with, but thinking on it a little more closely… the Order of Scath had disappeared when…  
"The Mark of Scath… he didn't get it from the cult, he got it from the demon itself!" he suddenly realised just what kind of a mess he'd put himself in taunting Slade the way he had, even giving a message to his master. He'd thought it was a human at the time. Humans he could handle, no prob. But his train of thought went further.  
"And that means you… but… the others… it's a trap! He knows he can't use our… fuck!" he started running towards the Titans, not thinking a wop would be safe, given the situation.

Beast Boy was the last to strike. Slade was bruised, battered and bleeding, but he still stood.  
"Your friends can't kill me, green one," he wheezed as he seemed to cling to life by a mere thread," but you can, can't you? You must truly hate me for what I did to Terra. Go ahead; unleash the animal inside. Shouldn't be too hard for you, eh? After all, you were always her favourite… pet."

That last word blotted out everything in BB's eyes. He didn't hear Juro talking to Raven, or even shouting that it was a trap. He just pounded, and clawed, and bit as much and as hard as he possibly could. He didn't even keep track of what animals he turned into, he just kept on fighting, hurting, until Slade finally stopped breathing.

Slade stopped breathing.

And right then, right there, BB realised: he had killed Slade. He had been the one to do it, really do it.

Slade was… dead.

The breath of the Titans, except Raven and Juro, turned into a fog, strange, because the temperature wasn't that low. The fog turned a light blue, and congealed into a material that flowed like mercury, towards symbols that started glowing in the ground, different symbols from what Slade had on his forehead. Juro cursed as the symbols flew into the air and disappeared, leaving everyone else wondering at what had transpired.

Slade started breathing again, his body regenerating once more.

Everyone, even Raven, who'd approached a little to get a closer look, even she was dumbstruck. She just didn't understand it. It didn't fit.

"Now, as I was saying," Slade said from his crater, now fully recovered," you can go see what all this… fuss is about. But you two," he pointed to the two mages again," you stay right here."

"What did you just do, Slade? You died! Why aren't you dead?" Cyborg beat everyone to the question this time.

"Oh, that?" Slade replied calmly," those were just some sigils charged with all your murderous lust. It's etheric energy-matter, you see. Like a killer lifeblood, only magic."

Raven still couldn't piece it together in her mind. Her father could only draw power from his symbol, that's why he had Slade scorch it into the ground; that would let him tap into some of Earth's magnetic field, the same way Therionites did. But this… Trigon the Terrible just didn't have that kind of power. He couldn't capture and use emotions, not from within his prison, not even through a minion. Unless…

Slade looked her in the eye, as if he was reading her thoughts.

Trigon didn't have that kind of power.

But Slade did.

It was exactly the same set-up, it had to be… the same way he'd tricked Thunder and Lightning to summon that Fire elemental. Only the Titans' energy wasn't connected with magic, and the two mages they had could control their emotions.

So what was he planning to do now?

"Take this, Robin," Juro offered his leader one of energy disrupting darts, useless against anything other than spiritual opponents," in case there are ghosts down there. It's me and Raven he wants to keep out, and I don't think there's anything down there you can't figure out."

Robin considered his options, and didn't like them one bit. Eventually they went inside, leaving their two mage friends alone with the unkillable maniac.

"Alone at last, Juro. Shall I destroy you quickly, or would you rather buy your friends some time, for whatever purpose they might need it?" Slade asked, as if inquiring about the weather.

"They'd prefer I stall you as much as I can," Juro replied, before turning to Raven," Raven, whatever you see or hear, don't get mixed up. No matter what happens, this is my fight. He wants me for payback at least, regardless of what he wants you for."

"Juro… don't…" Rae tried.

He smiled at her.  
"Don't worry. I'll be fine. It feels like… something's going to happen, a memory about to resurface… and I need to do this for it to happen," he spoke quietly so Slade wouldn't hear.

"Tell me, boy," Slade called," do you love Raven? Really love her?"

Juro turned to face the villain, but didn't answer.

"Of course you do, and I suppose by now you've realised the truth," Slade continued.

"I only knew rumours," Juro replied," of a cult centred around raising the incarnation of evil. It supposedly spread from other planets, waiting to find a suitable one. I recognised your Mark right away, but I kept it to myself; I thought you'd allied with the cult. I thought I could handle a cult on my own, but it's him, isn't it?"

Slade chuckled, a strange and disturbing sound by any standard.  
"You are a smart one. But you know what's really funny? The cult used chaos magic to raise the godform. In a very real sense, the two of us are meant to be mortal enemies. It's a shame, really: I think you'd have made a fine apprentice."

'Meant to be mortal enemies' rang in Juro's mind. Why had he kept his knowledge of the Mark to himself? Even if it was just the cult they were dealing with, his friends deserved to know. He couldn't find a plausible reason for this behaviour, but somehow, he felt something else must be more important. Slade had a fixation on continuing his legacy, but why? Why mutate his son and mutilate his daughter, just for a lasting presence? How did Juro even know about that? No, must keep thinking about Slade… he was scared of something, that Slade, it was like he'd seen something… the answer eluded him for now.  
"You're right, Slade. At this point in space and time we cannot exist as anything less than enemies. You toy with people's free will, ruin lives and all for your own selfish reasons."

"Them's fightin' words, Juro. Are you sure you wouldn't rather delay it a little more?" Slade tried to psych him out. For a moment, things were tense.

Juro wopped to Slade in mid-roundhouse kick, which was blocked with inhuman speed.

"Suit yourself," Slade said, grabbing the mage by the ankle and swinging him face-first into the ground.

TTTTTTTTT

"Why do these statues look like friend Raven?" Starfire wondered aloud," and what is that large hand for?"

"This must be the place," Robin concluded," this is where… it'll happen. The start of the end of the world."

The doors behind them closed. Cyborg broke through easily enough, but the same ghosts that had harried them entering came back to stop them from leaving. Robin cut through them easily enough, and the next few doors fell as well, but still… it was taking up time.

"This whole thing was never meant to trap us. Slade's after Juro and Raven," Robin said, angry at himself for taking the bait like that.

TTTTTTTTT

Juro dodged a stream of flame, and blocked a black whip that tore open his right arm. He stumbled backwards towards Raven, muttering.  
"Stay back… don't fight him… let me…" he kept saying that when Raven healed him. She couldn't keep this up and neither could he.

"You can't fight him, Juro; his powers came from a demon… my father," she confessed.

"I know, and I won't let that stop me," he replied, regaining his balance," my current power is based on randomness. I can do everything the Infinite Improbability Drive can do. I can step through space with ease," he made a strange gesture with his hands. His index fingers and middle fingers were stretched and formed a cross, the others bent. BB would have recognised the sign as something from a certain anime involving Shadow Clones. It was a strange coincidence that he should form this symbol of all things, but then it was a power he accessed by doing random things.  
"But besides that, I can appear at more than one place at the same time," he continued, trying to talk some more bravery into himself. This would be the first time he tried this trick.

Slade, surprised at his opponent's newfound confidence, raised an eyebrow, not that anyone would notice with his mask on.  
"What do you mean?" he asked.

"The thing about fighting me is… there's so many of me," Juro replied.

In one more wop, Slade was surrounded by Juros kicking and punching him wherever they could.  
Slade was too strong, though, too fast. One by one, the Improbable duplicates were charred, their necks snapped by a backhand… there was a death for every one, until the last one remained. The others disappeared into Improbability, some leaving only smoke, some a piece of cheese.

"I won't kill you right away, Juro," Slade gloated," I'll break you first. You will beg me to put you out of your misery."

Why did that sound so familiar? Juro was trying to scan his mind for something… he knew he had to have a good reason for not revealing the Mark of Scath, but… what? Did he think he could handle it alone? Or was it… his other friends? He knew Ravager, Slade's daughter, he'd fought alongside her… but where and when had they met? He suddenly realised his memories must be buried.

The Invisible College relied on magic of all kinds, including chaos magic. They often protected their secrets by using hypnosis or other forms of memory repression. Slade was the trigger. He remembered a ritual… with the Invisibles, to alter future events… a chance event…

Juro took off his mask. He faced Slade as he took off his gloves and knives, mentally killing the person he'd been with the Titans. A paradigm shift, to adapt to this new menace. For the moment, in his mind, he was no longer a mere Teen Titan. He was something else, too. He tossed his communicator to Raven.  
"I had an epiphany just now, Slade. I think it's only fair to tell you I was bluffing the first time we fought. I knew some things about you in my subconscious, but they're all out now. I know what happened before you came to Jump City."

Slade was surprised, again. He couldn't… there was no way he could know.

"You switch between being a freelancer and working for yourself. You were told to come to Jump City, you were given the resources, and then you got to work on the place. Your mission was a simple one: find a group of exactly five people with strange and unique powers and fight them, force them into submission. You were told they would be unlike anything you'd ever faced, and their roles in the group were based on elemental symbolism. You went after the Titans, who'd only been formed a few months earlier. What you don't know is; you went after the wrong ones. We chaos mages, we can make some pretty unlikely things happen. Do you realise what I'm saying, Slade?"

How this boy knew all of that, he could take a wild guess. Not that it mattered; his mission had been cancelled when he died. But still, but did he mean?

"You've been fighting a decoy all this time, Slade. I knew the people you should have been after, and I know the people you are after now. So you see, you were right when you said we were meant to be mortal enemies. You've never even seen the Invisibles cell I used to work with, but you've caused the Titans a lot of grief. And now… my identity as a Titan has been removed. Think you can handle a former Invisible?" he half hoped the boast would cause Slade to back down, but deep down he knew he had to face this.

"I'll give you one shot," came the reply," one… single… shot. After that you can say your goodbyes."

Raven panicked now. Juro looked back at her, his eyes… his eyes had an alien aspect to them. She felt like she didn't know him, the way he looked now. This boy was a stranger now. The other Titans came running out of the library right at that moment. Before Raven could object, before she could do anything, Juro cupped his hands behind his thigh and gathered power. There was no stopping this, she realised. She headed for cover.

Beast Boy recognised the gesture, another something from an anime, but it wasn't until Juro actually started speaking that he fully realised what it was. Slade had his back to the other Titans, and BB was pretty sure this was going to be a heavy blow.

"Shi…" BB read his lips. That's when it dawned on him.

"Ni…"  
"Everybody hit the deck!" BB shouted.

"Gaa…"  
"What do you think you're doing, silly little boy?" Slade asked.

"Mi…" Raven braced herself behind the piece of wall she'd just raised.

For a moment, the world seemed to stand perfectly still.

"Haa!!" Juro thrust his hands forward and propelled a black energy ball connected to what looked like a black laser beam.

Slade had half a second to be impressed, before it struck him and began to rend his flesh. Sinews snapped and rotted, causing him to flap about as his dead skin flaked within his armour. His lungs were being mummified from the inside out, and he was pretty sure he felt his heart exploding.  
Juro fed it more power still, until his own eyes began to glaze over and his nose began to bleed. Tiny cracks started appearing in his target's body, the dark power mixing with his blood as it gushed out.

Finally, the shell that was Slade's body burst, pieces falling to the ground, turning into ashes upon contact.

Raven ran toward the boy. She hugged him from behind. Deep down, she hoped and prayed he hadn't changed for good, that he could just change back to being her… well, whatever one could call what he was to her. His breath slowed down, and she felt his aura change back. He was back to normal again.

Thank the Heavens for that.

As Robin looked at the scene, everything fell into place. Slade had wanted their emotional power to boost his own, so he could face the wild card of the team. He wanted them to enter the temple, to see the statues and that big demon hand. He wanted them to be scared, because now they had irrevocable proof that their friend was the key to the end of the world, the arrival of the devil himself. He vaguely remembered seeing a demon with antlers on his head, and four red eyes like Raven's when she got angry. Maybe she'd placed that memory when she entered his mind, that time when he went nuts with paranoia. Come to think of it, everyone had had their own brush with Raven's darker side, and her past. In a strange way, knowing that their friend was destined to end the world didn't come as a shock anymore. Knowing Raven the way they did had softened the blow. They had been prepared for this.

But nothing could prepare them for what happened next.

After literally having death thrown at him, Slade regenerated and stood up. Raven jumped in front of Juro.  
"Don't come any closer. I'll kill you if I have to," she threatened.

"You fool," he answered," I cannot die!" he shouted as the others regained their composure and charged from behind. Slade crashed past the shield Raven had put up in a hurry, shoved her aside and wrapped his hands in a hellish knife of flame, preparing to deliver the death stroke he'd once gained fame with.

"LEREN R'LYEH KANA…" were Juro's last words as Slade hand penetrated his rib cage, searing flesh and bone, heat tickling his spine as life evaporated from him.

He was dead in a millisecond. Slade assumed those last words were either a prayer or a spell cut short.

Raven was staring at the two, Juro's body only standing because Slade's arm still held it up.  
"Now that we have that out of the way, I can deliver the Prophecy. You all know what it means already, don't you?" he asked them.

_All of time flows to one point. This is what every mage learns during their initiation. I can feel my own death physically… funny how it turns out. I'd have thought sacrificing my Teen Titan identity would be enough. Slade's death stroke is compressed from a millisecond to an infinitesimal speck in the space/time continuum, a moment of passage so thin as to be non-existent. But it does exist; it is the moment of my death._

_How like the guillotine this must be. A blade severs a head, making a snapshot of the intangible moment of death. My arsenal is spent, my body is dead, my last spell cut off before I knew it. _

_All of time is one point, this is what Raven and I both know. We are both initiated in our respective fields, different though they are. _

_The time of my death expands, to the millisecond in which my nerves shut down to numb the pain of my blood boiling from the inside out, not to mention my spinal cord and brain being literally fried. Not that the brain has any pain receptors, mind you, but the skin covering it does. Feels like an itch, now that I think about it. Must be just me.  
My belief doesn't really say anything about an afterlife; that idea switches along with the rest of my convictions. Most chaotes think that when they die, they will become one with omnipresent Chaos. I think that's where I'm heading. _

_Chaos. Order and Disorder, alpha and omega, male and female, black and white, heck, Billy and Mandy, all in one. I know what Billy and Mandy are. _

_To see everything, be one with everything. I am one with trees, ketchup, sneezes… trippy. _

_I died before I could finish that last spell. _

_The time of my death expands backwards to a full second, becoming the time of my dying. I cannot travel back through time and undo my dying, at least not now. I'm aware of my last words now. I couldn't finish the chant. I feel my spirit joining chaos, or is it something else? Things start downloading…facts, information. Scath is really Trigon… Slade once set his daughter up on a blind date… before the eye-gauging thing… guess even he had his mushy moments in the past. For some strange reason Raven's bra size enters my mind. Why would the all-present Chaos, the total sum of all facts and possibilities, move in such a way that I now know Raven's bra size? I know it now, and don't think I'm telling you. _

_Who am I talking to? I just said I'm not telling 'you', but… 'you' are only reading this. Chaos opens my vista, and the second of my dying reveals 'you'. Chaos is everything, encompasses every possibility, so it contains 'you' as well. I see 'you', just as I see a strange figure typing down my every word, thinking about the next phase of my dying. I can't help but laugh at both our arrogance; he steals the fire of creation from the gods, while I… well, I tried. Chaos lets me see it all now. _

_It expands even further, my view, to a place now. I could tell you latitude and longitude, but I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. I see something deep. It's a temple, designed completely in a non-Euclidian form: no straight lines or planes. I hear a roar now. _

_It rises in volume as I see a game of Magic being played. One player has an Elvish Piper in play…he taps it, turns it sideways, to pay the activation cost and use its ability to put a Verdant Force into play. It's not likely, mind you: every sensible player knows you shoot the Piper before it uses its ability to put a fattie into play. In response, the opponent casts Shock, killing the Piper. The Piper dies. The Verdant Force still enters play. That's how the game works._

_The second of my dying becomes an eternity. A lifetime of dying, as death is the price we pay to live. If all time is but one moment, then there is also only one moment of death for all living things. My time of dying is an eternity, and if all time is one moment the time of my death is all of time. If that is true, then I was dead before, yet I could act. If I could act in life, then death cannot stop my last act. I have been tapped, the cost of using my activated ability has been paid. I have made the call, and being killed in response does not stop the call from reaching my target. I hear the roar intensifying again. No, even death cannot stop what I have done, or what I am about to do. _

_The roar, I know now, is coming the sunken city of R'Lyeh. It fills my mind, as the great High Priest of the Elder Gods, Cthulhu, grants me His blessing. He is fiction, made up by a no doubt brilliant but sick mind. I suppose in a way we have much in common. He is fiction, yet to me he is real, to me he truly came down with his people when the Earth was young and made life on Earth by manipulating primal matter. His form in our three dimensions is that of a mountain-sized humanoid with a head like an octopus, tentacles at his hands and feet and wings as a dragon's. _

_And just as He came down Aeons ago to change primal matter into life, He changes me. The cells within my dead husk change, a higher evolution on a cosmic scale happens within the confines of my body, one cell changed while I was alive, not that it matters, it only means I have my own life to draw upon as Cthulhu remakes me. _

_Mitochondria revert to being full cells, the cells that held them become something between mitochondria and regular cells, unknown cellular organs form and spread over my body, and I know I shall be remade in his Image, a miniature version of the Great Cthulhu… a Starspawn. _

_Intelligent design never looked so ugly. _

_My body doesn't look any different as it hangs limply from the killer's hand, still buried in my chest. Slade finishes his task and casts a spell, a message to the world. He delivers the Prophecy that the other Titans have read in the Temple. The symbol flares on his forehead as the words of power resonate in their ominous message. The one he scorched on the ground, a miniature version of the A-Bomb Incantation, powers his voice loud enough to overpower the sound of the flames. Even as he speaks, I know he relishes my apparent demise._

"The gem was born of evil's fire,  
the gem shall be his portal.  
He comes to rule, he comes to sire  
the end of all things mortal."

With the power of his words leaving the Titans temporarily shocked, Slade prepared to shake off his fresh kill, when the body moved and grabbed his wrist.

Juro's eyes shot open. He wasn't breathing, he had no heartbeat, he had a hole in his chest with a hand through it, he was not alive.  
But that didn't stop him from raising his free hand and bringing it down in his supposed killer's gut. Slade, despite being immortal and pretty much unkillable, still breathed, which meant he could get the air pounded out of him. This pretty much sums up what happened.

Juro and Slade separated, the other Titans still half paralysed. They tried to back up and give them room to fight, but neither party seemed interested in them.  
The two looked at each other, tensely. Even the unholy fire in the background seemed to quiet down.

"It can't be… I killed you. You were spent," Slade almost panicked. Almost.

The open wound in Juro's chest sealed a little, as his clothes melted into his skin and changed into a green colour. His bare hands were following suit quickly.

"I was. He wasn't," Juro replied," you should know something about us chaotes, Slade… bring one God to bear to bear on us, we drop a whole pantheon right unto your head."

"What?" Slade asked, enraged," who…"

"That is not dead which can eternally lie.  
And with strange eons even death may die," Juro interrupted," see, I can do prophecies too," his flesh wasn't fully healed yet," but they only mean to me what I let them mean," he looked at Raven," we will decide for ourselves what your Prophecy means. Come to think of it, you might want to consider leaving now, Slade. You have what you wanted from my friends, and the boost wasn't enough to kill me. You've pulled your little Oppenheimer stunt with that Prophecy you wanted to deliver, but… is your mission complete while I'm still standing?"

"You're bluffing," Slade replied," you can't regenerate as fast as me, and you can't rely on your friends to attack me from behind. Like you said, my little Oppenheimer stunt worked. You can only delay the time I destroy you."

"Oh, calling my bluff? Fine. Call it," the mutating chaote replied.

Slade sent a black streamer to tear his opponent apart, but right before it struck something strange happened: a vacuum opened around Juro as he seemed to swallow space itself to regenerate. Before the thing even hit him, his body became a glistening green mass, his eyes dark voids and his back sporting dragon wings. Whatever damage came through to him, it healed instantly.

"My turn," he growled.  
His arm extended to the two meters between them, grabbing Slade by the ankle and swung him up, then downward, slamming him face-first into the ground. Slade shot up on the rebound, broke loose and spat flame hotter than Hell itself, and he should know. It was, however, to no avail. Juro's every cell should have evaporated, but the only marks of the attack were wisps of smoke coming from his skin's surface.

The retaliation was swift and quite indescribable to anyone without a degree in astrophysics. Suffice it to say, Starspawn/Juro brought down a might as that of a star sucking in a planet, only the other way around. Slade reeled under the assault that came from everywhere, his armour cracked and buckled under pressures that modern science couldn't even measure, let alone reproduce.

Still Slade regenerated. The other Titans could only look on.

"So is this your idea of the epic struggle between good evil? Are we to be two immortals, locked in an eternal struggle until Judgement Day and trumpets sound?" Slade picked a weird time to get philosophical.

"Or you could surrender," Juro suggested.

They turned to melee then. Slade's body still had bones to break, but Juro's was more of a tough, scaly jelly, which put them both on equal, if Earth-shaking level of blows. After a flurry of movement in close quarters, the two separated again.

"Tell me, Juro, do you really think you can keep this up? You'll have to change back some time. It is inevitable," Slade boasted.

'Time…' Juro thought. What had been revealed to him? What was going to reveal itself to him? It was his own fault that the fabric of time had been compacted. It was his fault that last winter never happened. He'd done it, like so many things, subconsciously. The Mark 2 had revealed a great many things to him, and while he couldn't remember all of it, he remembered Raven's fate. That revelation had driven him to make it so the stars would never align. Last winter got compacted because of the backlash of this act. Yet here was Slade, fighting him because he, or rather Trigon, for he knew the name now, believed it didn't matter. At that moment in time, Trigon was still in another dimension. He could see past and future as long as nobody interfered with his sight and as long as his world remained outside the three dimensions they knew. He knows now that something will happen to fix the time stream, because he has seen the moment where his world overlaps with that of Earth, an event that cannot possibly be consistent with the current state of the continuum. If not Juro's death, then another act shall undo Juro's meddling.

Arthur Dent… he sent the message to Juro about the Mark 2. How had he gotten to be there? Suddenly things made sense. Arthur Dent came because Juro called him. Juro was able to call him because he had learned from the Invisibles, he had met the Invisibles when they learned about his chaotic prowess, and he had gotten his chaotic prowess from… someone who remained hidden. From one source all of this sprang; it lead to his powers, which lead to him joining the Invisibles as an ally, which in turn lead to the creation of Kai, his servitor, and the formation of the Teen Titans, an event which he helped engineer. The Invisibles made him forget, because of his unstable emotions at the time, but they'd left him with a guide. They must have known it would turn out this way… Slade was Rose's father, for crying out loud. They expected him to fend for himself, even now. He realised his choice, then, or the lack thereof.

The rift was still open. He had torn a hole through time when he fought the Mark 2, and now with a rift, he could alter the past. He knew what he had to do; the only logical option that remained. Cthulhu existed in 5 dimensions, and with His blessing, Juro could do this.

He raised his hands and brought them down. Slade was caught in a gravity well shoving him firmly into the ground. A sigil appeared around the grounded figure; a pentagram inside a square, which was in turn inside a circle, and from this circle two lines spread behind him, as well as a curved arrow pointing to Juro.

He warped Slade's world with his mind and magic, pushing and pulling at events in the past. Somewhere in the Galaxy, a faerie cake exploded.

He warped his own past, as well. He found the pinpoint in time when he surfed the Internet looking for… whatever it was he was looking for that day. A little push there, and he found his way to chaos magick.  
He pulled at the time when Arthur Dent died. He sent his ghost to his past self, which landed him the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and with it, the evidence that the Mark 2 was pulling realities together.  
But none of that would matter if he didn't do this last thing. Most every single thing he remembered doing, he did because of a dream he had where someone suffered because he didn't act. In his own mind, that dream had caused him to put the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. His final act was to launch that dream in all its horrid reality on his younger self, to mentally wound him so deep he could not shift it away.

He reshaped his own past, as well as Slade's. One change to use as a weapon, another to ensure his own existence.

There is, however, another point to all of this. Juro was unaware of the fact that he had an opposite value; as he was a creature born in chaos, there was on the same Earth a creature thrown into chaos. As he was a creature drawn to Light and loved by one of Darkness, there was one who was drawn to Darkness and loved by a creature of Light. And it is a simple fact of the Universe, that every action has a reaction. Everything affects everything. This means in truth that Juro had changed not only his past, but also Raven's, as she is also an opposite of his, if a different one, as well as Kari's and Toshiro's past.

Do not blame the chronicler for this turn of events, it is not merely a cowardly ploy to get out from under the Laws of Consistency, it merely his task to record the Truth. The chronicler records only the Truth. He records everything he wishes to.

That all being said, the changes made in Slade's lifeline had the desired effect, though to attempt a full description would require at least thirty more letters in the alphabet. The best attempt, however, would be as follows: first he felt physical pain as the gravity well crushed his still-live body. Then he felt psychological pain as the memory of every dirty thought, every slap and punch, every single maddening threat or taunt he'd ever uttered… he had an awful lot of those, he realised… everything came to him, then had its impact on him drained. It felt as if he were being undone to his very core. He didn't feel content thinking about how he'd nearly driven Robin insane, how he'd enslaved Terra, even having his daughter gauge out her eye or his son as he lost his voice… everything just felt gone.

Next Slade felt a gaping void.

But the greatest horror was how it ended. When he was released he couldn't summon any power, couldn't even think of moving because of the emotional shock but… he felt happy.

Slade 'Deathstroke' Wilson was happy. He couldn't grasp it.

"What… did you… do?" he asked, panting.

"I unmade as much of you as I could. Your actions did take place, but their end result is negated. I couldn't revive the people you killed, but it does heal every scar you inflicted, and now… you can't move. You are beaten, Slade. Leave now," Juro half commanded.

Slade felt the gate open under him as Trigon pulled him back.  
"Alright. We'll call it a draw. But you're a fool, boy. You have changed nothing. The Prophecy has been delivered," Slade boasted.

"And I have answered with my own," the boy retorted.

"Even you vaunted powers cannot stop what is coming. This is a matter of gods, boy. A poser like you cannot stop what is coming," Slade spat as his head lowered further down.

"No, I can't," Juro replied," but I can change it."

When Slade was gone, Juro returned to normal, took back his gloves, his communicator, everything that made him an official Titan, and then collapsed, laughing.  
"I did it to myself, you guys. Everything that's wrong with me… I just made it happen. And man, I heard a funny song when I was one with everything," he chuckled. The others were snapping out of it then.

"Gek zijn is gezond, ja; (subtitle: being is insane is good for you, yes,)  
gek zijn is gezond (being insane is good for you)  
Morge ben ik God (Tomorrow I'll be God)  
Vandaag ben ik Napoleon (Today I am Napoleon)  
Hahaha! I can't move. I'm not supposed to be able to do that, what I just did. I mean… whose league am I even in? I'm not stronger than anyone; I just do crazier stuff than anyone I know. Just today I got replication power, stopped being a Titan for a while, I took in the presence of a god that only exists in horror novels and I tore up the fabric of space and time… again. Oh, I can feel it. Wow, I missed that. That lovely feeling of impending oblivion…" and then he passed out.

TTTTTTTTT

"He is a defiant one," Trigon boomed," this Juro… he even names himself after a two-faced god… there is no question now he is both an Invisible and a Teen Titan, yet the full truth still eludes him. Damn those Invisibles and their mental boobie traps, they call themselves the 'Masters of Empty-Handed Insurrection', yet with all that power they cannot even trust their allies to know they are in fact allies. Always weaving new personalities and fake memories… they're impossible to calculate, and him doubly so, on the count of that bloody chaos magick… It is indeed him, Slade, the exact opposite to my daughter, conceived by my arch-enemy and dropped into a maelstrom of realities."

"Well, if he is even part Invisible, then he will have to fought as one fights an Invisible. My… former employers wanted me to break them, and while they did have the common sense to show me how, they neglected to tell me how to find those little bastards. Not that it matters… my contract ended upon death, and the Invisibles aren't involved in our conflict. Strange, though, that they'd go through all that trouble just to provide a decoy. Still, one must always have a trick up the old sleeve. The Titans actually think I used their energy to boost my strength," Slade laughed to himself.

The magic mirror substance of the first globe merged with half of the free energy gather from the Titans. A vague, glimmering human form appeared from it.

"Go forth, and take what you need to grow," Slade commanded.

TTTTTTTTT

The day after, everyone was tired. Juro woke up in the infirmary, his self-inflicted mutation reversed and his body fully healed. Raven came to his side.  
"You kept Terra in her original state," she noted.

"It's better that way, trust me," he replied.

"Why didn't you just tell me about your past?" there came the big question.

"Because I didn't know it myself, Rae. The Invisibles… they're like a counter-conspiracy against stuff you wouldn't even dream of. To them… fake memories and alternate pasts are daily bread and butter. I wasn't even aware Bumblebee used to be one until a few days ago. It seems that as I get stronger, I can see more of the outside, the entire Universe opens up in my mind. But to get stronger, I have to look inside. I don't know what else is going to pop up. For all I know, I'm dreaming this, or I'm just as made up as Cthulhu, subject to the whim of a sadistic author and the people mad enough to read about me," he ranted a little. Raven patted his head.

"You're real enough to me," she said, simply looking him in the eye," think you can get up and join me on the roof?"

"Sure."

Starfire and Robin did their talking that morning as well, and sadly, talking was were it ended. This whole affair had shaken up Robin as well as the others, but for him things were slightly different.

He went down to the trophy room, where he always went to think things through. He was met by a strange figure rummaging through the vault. He was about to grab his communicator, when it spoke to him:  
"Do you really wanna do that?"

Robin stopped. That voice… it sounded familiar. The figure turned around.

It was like looking in the mirror. Same face, same hair, same body… but his eyes held something different from the real Robin's sheer determination. Arrogance and a disregard to others. It took the belt from the Red X costume, put it on, and instantly it changed.

Instead of looking like the Robin everyone knew, it began to change into something like Robin when he was Slade's apprentice. Instead of the usual 'R' symbol he had more of a curved scythe on his chest, with another diagonal line making it into a different 'R' symbol. His arms and upper body, as well as his legs were covered in black leather, and the facial mask curved at the edges. His boots had metal tips, like Red X, and the belt seemed to spread red lines over the costume, veins flowing into the gloves and boots. It warped everything as it made contact.

"What are you?" Robin asked.

"I'm you. I'm the ghost you created. I am your dark side incarnate. I am Reaper Robin," he said as he started walking toward the original," and I'm just gonna walk right out of here, and you won't try and stop me. You know how I know?" he asked when he was inches away from Robin's face.  
"I know because you can't stand someone else doing the fighting for you. You're so convinced everyone relies on you that you don't want your friends to gang up on me and make a quick fix. You can't fight me here; neither of us is up to full strength, but when next we meet, we'll go at it one on one. And when we do, your ass is mine," he continued walking," come to think of it, it already is," he snickered," the chips are up, Robin. You shouldn't have buried me like you did. You shouldn't have given me the chance to rise up," he called, Robin still with his back towards him," but then, it isn't the first stupid thing you did. Give my regards to Terra, will ya?" and with that, he disappeared.

Robin stood there, reeling. The belt was really gone. He hadn't dreamed it, he hadn't been hallucinating; Reaper Robin was real. They had a new enemy. No, he had a new enemy. He'd tell his friends about it in a while. Kai would have sniffed the intruder out by now. And they'd have to re-write their access codes to keep him from getting in again. But to fight him was Robin's task. That was his purpose. True, Juro was stronger in the ways of magic, and his powers warped space and time itself. But was just who he was. And Robin was an avenger, that was who he was. Even if he couldn't warp space and time, he was still the leader of the Titans. They trusted him for his own strengths, accepted his weaknesses.

The next time he met the Reaper, they would fight, one Robin against the other.

And then he would know once and for all, which of the two was stronger in him… good, or evil.

End of Chapter 24.

Author's notes 2: Wow, this is actually a first for me: the first chapter I wrote by hand first (it turned out on thirty something pages, and I edited a lot). Yes, Juro's actions will have effect on the Digimon fic (I've twisted the plot on that thing so much it's beginning to feel like a mop), but after that I'm calling the twists to a stop, I promise to all I hold sacred (which isn't much, but still…).  
Also, The Invisibles is owned by Grant Morrison, and a long story short it's about a counter-conspiracy organised by occultists, artists, you name it… to help free mankind of the oppression by creatures called the Archons. The Oppenheimer thing I took from the fourth part of the Invisibles; when the first nuclear bomb detonated a man called Oppenheimer spoke the words "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds," this was an enchantment, which got powered by the A-bomb and brought the creator of our Universe unto the Earth. This creator quickly got dissected by black scientists (like black magic, only science, not a racial thing), which in turn caused a backlash through time, leading to every single bad thing that has ever happened to any human in history. I thought using that as starting point would explain why Slade is so bent on delivering his messages: they make stuff happen. Anyhow, sorry for the delay, hope you enjoyed it, now review!


	25. Battle of the Robin Clones

Author's notes 1: Six months… it's been six months since my last update… In those six months, I've managed to pass every course in the first year of college, plus a few of the second year, and I have started my second year in earnest, minus the two courses I passed on my GIT. I'm not dead. I'm not quitting this fic, nor the Digimon one. I think it's fairly obvious the Hecatomb one is dead, along with Hecatomb itself. Shame, but that's what happens. I shall continue this story, until the end. Of the story, not me. I plan to outlast this story by a long shot.

Author's notes on the chapter: This is one of those filler episodes the series has/had. It's all about identity, and how you deal with having people who take you as a rolemodel, or rival, and turn out looking a lot like you. It also involves the importance (or lack thereof, perhaps) of being aware of your past and staying true to it. But that's not all. This isn't just a deep, thought-provoking chappie as I'm prone to produce, it's also my view on the whole 'Robin's identity' thing, as well as my guess at Red X's identity, though you'd probably disagree with me. I will say this, though: the person who I think is Red X, that guy's father, was a movie character (my not owning them is coming up shortly), and I saw that movie just a while ago again, and I noticed something odd… at the start of the movie, he steals a car and then stops near a van to get some equipment on it. That van had a chaosstar on it. Not just the Red Hot Chilli Peppers non-pointy thing but an actual chaosstar, with the arrows. How weird is that?

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, nor do I own any of the characters depicted in this fic. If you want to use Juro, be my guest, just be sure to drop me a line and don't forget to explain how in blazes he got to your continuum, because I really don't want to get people confused about continuities…well, not unnecessarily so. I don't own any of the Robin clones depicted in this chapter, though I do take credit for coming up with two of them… well, I'm sure they've shown up somewhere as Titans or Titans enemies, but I haven't seen them in those versions, so excuse me. I also don't own Batman or the Penguin, but I do have a maths professor who looks a lot like him. The Penguin, that is. I add that because there was going to ba a piece in this fic parodying him, but seeing as I have no reason to do so, I won't unless my fellow students read this story and ask me to.

And now, to business!

Chapter 24: Attack of the Robin clones. 

A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away… there lived a man. While this is not the most shocking of revelations, it should be noted that he was no normal man. Of course, the Galaxy in question did not really have any normality to speak of, but this abnormal person was special in his normal abnormality. He had grown up bearing a grudge against all forms of evil, his parents having been murdered before his eyes when he was a child.  
He was known as the Batman, the Dark Knight of Gotham. He fought evil as best he could, using his martial arts expertise and several varieties of weapons. At one point in his crime-fighting career, he joined a team of superheroes: the Justice League. While he did prove his worth as a superhero many times, he never became a permanent Leaguer due to his views and convictions.

In his mind, he was an avenger. He felt it was his duty to set right the wrongs for anyone who could not do it for themselves. Put bluntly, he did not belong to the Justice League, because Justice wasn't his primary motive, despite telling himself otherwise.

This story is not about him. It is about someone like him. Like Batman, he was an avenger. He had martial arts skills like Batman's, though slightly different, used weapons that resembled Batman's a great deal, but he was younger than the Dark Knight.  
He went by the name of Robin, and at one point, he had been Batman's sidekick, his ally, his apprentice. However, something happened between the two, and they had a falling out.  
Not long after, Robin would make his way to Jump City. At that point the city also harboured a group of five Invisibles, namely Ravager; the daughter of an assassin, Max; a one-eyed pop magician also known as Mister Peggy, Celia; his dead wife who'd been revived with a massive dose of creative energy, turning her into a muse, Absinthe; a former porn-addicted otherkin girl with faerie powers, and one temporary member who'd later be kept in reserve and brainwashed to forget the whole thing, as he was one of those rare people that seemed to have pure randomness following them. For the record, this group would later recruit someone who looked a lot like him, but was sucked into a hole leading into an alternate timeline. Anyway, to ensure their survival, for these five knew that Ravager's father was on their trail, they performed a ritual to alter chance events, thereby leading Robin to discover four other heroes in a very, very unlikely event. This, of course, led to the formation of the Teen Titans. They elected Robin to be their leader, or rather, he took charge and they followed, because they all knew him and his formidable reputation. However, like Batman, Robin felt that he was an avenger. His determination to find and neutralise criminals like Slade, who mistook the Titans for his targets, quickly degenerated into an obsession. Nevertheless, in time he got over it, and the friendship among the Titans ensured that they would see things through regardless of what happened.

But that was only because they didn't know what would happen. A sixth Titan found her way to Jump City, a drifter named Terra. Her tragedy and the subsequent grief caused Robin to think about himself. It brought him a startling conclusion.

He'd forgotten who he was.

It didn't really strike him as odd at first. After all, he was a full-time hero. He just didn't have time to stop and think about anything else. But it gnawed at him in time. He tried to see what he looked like in regular clothes, but that didn't help. He simply couldn't remember who he was, who he'd been before he'd become Robin. And after that, of course, the problems he had about his feelings for Starfire only got worse; if you can't remember who you were, you can't be sure of what kind of girl is your type. If he cared for her with the mask on, would that change in normal life? It was a big problem. But his biggest problem was revenge. It just didn't sit right with him that he felt the way he did and couldn't explain it. He knew he'd been wronged, but not what wrong had been committed. Was someone close to him murdered? Had anyone survived? And most of all he wondered: Had he ever gotten back at whoever it was he was supposed to get back at?

Then some time after, Juro came into the team, by a coincidence that now, it seemed, never occurred. All this messing with realities and alternate timelines gave him headaches. What had happened and what hadn't overlapped the way oceans overlap continents. It wasn't his cup of tea, and never had been. He was never the one to save the universe by some planet-enveloping spell or a limit break that made him push past his body's limits, or even a new weapon that saved the day from some new and strange foe.

Nope, his superpowers were nigh-on non-existent. If he saved the world from anything it involve either pushing a button or hitting something with a stick… very hard. But that didn't mean he couldn't try. So there he was, contemplating all of this, as Raven and Terra prepared the special sparring match just for him. While Raven would work on his peripheral senses, Terra would work on his speed. She was actually getting used to the moves Kai had taught her, though where the turtle thing had gotten them in the first place was a question best left unanswered. Another week or two and Juro would restore her memory full. Robin stopped his train of thought and focused on the task at hand.

Time to start.

Terra stomped on the ground, causing her sandbags to shake a little. Apparently Kai wanted Terra to work with sand so she wouldn't tear up the landscape every time she tried something. Her current move, however, caused a few pebbles to shoot up from the ground, after which she pelted them by punching the air. The mechanics of the thing eluded Robin, but he noticed Terra's long range projectiles were a lot faster than before Kai's lessons. Five little rocks shot towards him, and he tried to get into the right frame of mind to dodge them the way he should, but in the end he just went on reflex. He cocked his head to the left 'one,' letting the pebble shoot past, sidestepped the one aimed for his thigh 'two,' lifted his foot for the low shot 'three,' ducked under the one going for his skull 'four,' and rolled away before the last one buried itself in his stomach.

'Five,' he thought. Too much reflex action. He was supposed to have insight, not a knee-jerk reaction.

Raven's routine was easier for him. The idea was that he be able to strike at the floating arm paddings while they were out of his line of sight, basically the same thing he'd done with the Guardian of the Cave. Even though he couldn't see or hear the things in Raven's soundless grasp, he could feel them out and perfectly hit every one of them. When it became clear he had the hang of it, Terra did her trick again. He still couldn't feel out things that moved too fast to see. It got even more frustrating when Terra actually DID make her rocks too fast to see, at Robin's request, of course. In the end, it proved more of a test for Terra not to hit him than for Robin to dodge her attacks. His partial success only frustrated him, even more so than a complete failure would.

TTTTTTT

Meanwhile, in the Titans Tower East…  
"Well, officer Trudeau, that certainly sounds like a predicament," Bumblebee spoke to the phone," if you follow up on the lead that gypsy gave you, you're likely to lose your job. But if you don't and she's right, there'll be an explosion big enough to send Gotham to the Stone Age."

"Right, and even if I find proof, nobody'll believe me, I don't think even Batman could help," the officer replied," I mean, gremlins aren't exactly recognised as pests, and they certainly aren't the same thing as fighting supervillains, so that rules out the Justice League. But if you could get here, that'd work. People would believe you; you're used to dealing with these weird situations."

"True, but even though we're closest to Gotham City, we can't go out in full force. Random got this call for an add-on to her watch, the twins are over at the airport, and I've got to hold the fort back here. I'll try to phone around, see who I can get, but if I were you, I'd keep this quiet and try and do it solo."

TTTTTTT

He finished training, feeling as if he still had a long way to go and no time to go in. Still, at least it was something. When he felt he'd done enough, he asked Raven if she could translate some of the texts he'd been given by the True Master. Some of the instructions were in English, but he felt like they didn't convey something… something important. And it was a form of magic, kinda, that he was trying to accomplish, and Juro was better at coming up with new languages than reading ancient ones, so…

"'The Humming Bird technique consists of amplified bursts of energy launched at high speed,'" Raven translated,"' the aim is to hit structural weaknesses in any target and let the energy spread through the cracks made thereby. This effectively destroys the entire target, given enough energy is used. The result, depending on technique and intent, can be paralysis or fractures in a living object, and shattering of inanimate objects, however hard they may be'… sounds impressive. I wonder why the Master didn't translate this?"

Robin couldn't think of a satisfactory reply either, but then he wasn't used to dealing with mystics. Never was, and never had been.  
"Well, at least now I know what I'm trying to do here," Robin spoke," but where do the sight exercises come in?"

Raven leafed through the booklet.  
"Ah, here. Listen to this:' in order to accomplish technical proficiency in this art, one must first learn to perceive in two ways…'" Raven continued," that's strange, I thought this language made the difference between 'seeing' and 'perceiving', but it says here 'perceive'…anyway: 'The first and arguably easiest form to master is Overvision. Through this, the warrior perceives everything around him gains deeper understanding of the forces surrounding him. It is this that allows the user to target certain structural weaknesses in both living and dead targets, as well as letting the warrior sense his own energy to better steer them. It is this mastery and control that allows for great feats while using up only a slight amount of energy,'" Raven recounted," so I guess this lets you see all the weak spots in stuff. Even Juro couldn't do that in his space samurai persona."

The idea of his team mate having powers borrowed from TV now bothered Robin to no end. How he could have felt it was normal at one point was beyond him. Nevertheless, he was past feeling strange about things. He'd gotten past feeling strange when Starfire was about to marry a blob and the tofu invading the city a few days ago had reminded him of this sentiment.

"Okay, but does it have any details on how to train it? Anything the pictures aren't saying?" he asked.

Raven shook her head.

"No… it's strange, though. There's a phonetic here that doesn't seem to belong," she quietly answered.

"A what?" Robin stammered.

"This language… it's like Japanese. You have things that mean entire words, and phonetic scripts that only say things about the syllables. These markings here… are phonetics that don't make sense. They spell words that have separate symbols, so either they mean something other than the actual words, or they refer to a family name."

"And what does it say?"

"'White', this one here, then I think 'Blood', followed by 'Spin', or 'Turn', might even be 'Circle' or something. Then 'Seal', and 'Lie', or 'Untruth.' It's like these signs were supposed to stand out in the text."

"Anything more?"

"'The second perception is Clearvision. It allows the user to predict and counter any attack made, even copy the attacks before they are executed, effectively letting the user become as one with his enemy. This is a crucial skill, as the Humming Bird is dangerous without it; at the speed it is being used, failing to predict a counter or a dodge can result in death,'" Raven trailed off at that," are you sure this is something you want to learn, Robin?"

"Yes, Raven, I do. I thought you would understand me that much by now."

It was true; there had been a time when Robin and Raven were the only two people in the Tower who were completely human and, as such, had a modicum of compatibility. But they'd always been too different to be more than friends, not to mention Robin's ever-complicating relationship with Starfire. Still, they understood one another. Raven had learned that Robin, or even boys in general, always need to have some sort of affirmation of their existence. It was just the way nature had made them, and in abnormal situations it only became stronger, sometimes overwhelming every other impulse. Robin simply needed to have a goal that he could reach, some kind of trophy ability that nobody could ever match. Juro had taken an important role as a fighter, his wopping ability combined with… whatever it was he used as a martial art. Then there were the special knives… again, going down that train of thought led to headaches. The point was that the Titans' group dynamics had been shaken up a lot, and Robin had trouble adjusting to it, being the leader and all. If he wanted to keep up, he needed to elevate his level, and he just couldn't do that if his entire repertoire came down to 'swing something, anything'.

"I do. It's just that you're trying to do something you don't even understand. Maybe Juro…"Raven was cut off.

"Juro can't help me with this. This isn't a reality-altering blast, or a death wave from a TV-show, or even a style of fighting from an outer galaxy. This is just… the next step for me. And I'm pretty sure he can't read that writing, either," Robin interrupted.

"I'm just saying that this is going to be dangerous if you try it. Extrasensory abilities can be a good thing, but if you rely on them too much, there's a chance you won't survive when somebody manages to surprise you. Besides that, you're going to try and hit things with energy. You're a great warrior, Robin, but you're a layman when it comes to the supernatural. That doesn't mean you're not stronger than me, or Juro, or even any one of us. You probably are. But you're trying to achieve a high level ability without any real advance training, and even if you get it, you're potentially risking your life using it. I trained extensively before I could meld my energy into shadows, and even more before I could make them physical. I fasted for weeks, months, just to get the right feel of the energy, and I still need to be able to clear my mind completely at a moment's notice. Juro… you don't even want to know what kind of formal training he underwent."

Robin decided to add to the conversation again.  
"Uh… actually I was kinda curious about that."

"Think strenuous yoga. Think addiction. Think self-induced unconsciousness and general border-line insanity. He still does the Death Posture three times a day."

Robin, at this point, realised he wouldn't win the argument if it kept going this way.  
"Look, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Everyone has their way of doing things. My way of doing things involves fighting hand to hand. There's just a lot of things I can't do that way… so will you please just tell me what this text says?"

"Okay," Raven conceded," there's a set of phonetic symbols for this one, too. It's identical, except it replaced 'White' with 'Red'. And there's something else, too… but I doubt if it means anything."

"What is it?" Robin asked.

"'Man', that's how it's pronounced, but there's no such word in that language with any meaning, then… I think it means 'Lizard'. Some kind of lizard, anyway. Or it's pronounced like the word for lizard, but a little different. But there's no exercises for it, no real training to prepare for it… if I had to guess, I'd say the True Master put these in for people who knew exactly what it meant, who actually had some innate potential for this, instead of trying to reach it. Or it's some kind of code you figure out by meditating on the signs; occultists have been known to do that. But then, she would have explained it in detail while you were there. Unless, of course, she knew someone near you who did know its meaning, and she expected you to look that person up. Did she say anything out of the ordinary when you were there?"

"Now that you mention it, she did seem to know a lot about the Legend of the Eight Immortals, and the Ninth."

"You mean the one about Drunk Boxing?"

Robin nodded.  
"Yeah, that one. It's strange; she asked me what the Eight Virtues might be, and I knew them all. But nobody ever told me, not that I know of. Does it say anything else?"

Raven went to the last page.  
"'This work was made in secret, and can be attributed only to the… School of the Unseen,' I think,' for more information, seek out the… Knight that cannot be seen?' I can't make sense of this, the language is bad enough, but the handwriting's just terrible."

That was all Robin needed to know. Unbelievable. To think that guy would go through all that trouble… the School of the Unseen was what Bruce's shinobi academy was called, and the word 'Knight' was a dead giveaway. Then, of course, the handwriting. While the man could chuck a Batarang and split a flower petal from a city block away, Bruce's fingers had never been accustomed to pens. It was unlikely, but it was also the only thing that was actually possible. It had to have been the Batman.

Why not? He still had some time to go to Gotham, hop in, ask for an explanation, hop out. And maybe Bruce would be able to tell him who he'd been once. Batman had a secret identity in Bruce Wayne; it's not unreasonable to think Robin had a secret identity, right?

TTTTTTT

Red X was on the run. It wasn't that he was scared, but he couldn't risk any surprises from his latest victim. He'd stolen a device that would be able to fabricate Xinothium from the neon and carbon dioxide gas particles in the air, in other words let his suit run on air. The bad news about it was that the guy who'd invented it was not only the proud owner of a secret lab, but also a superhero wannabe, and not a bad one at that. Then, of course, there were the security droids to deal with, but those were a push-over. The biggest problem was that the machine took forever to produce even a slight amount of the compound he needed, and even if it did, his suit could only produce a fraction of its normal firepower without the utility belt Robin had taken. And now, he was still in the damn lab, but an older, abandoned part of it. There were no security droids on patrol here, but he knew that would change soon, and the owner would show up as well. He would never be beaten by this guy; not in a million years, but he couldn't both fight and operate the huge disk-shaped device and make his escape. Then there was the possibility of two against one… this guy's sister was a ballerina dancer, and she had some connection to the Titans East, but he couldn't quite remember what… something distant, but not distant enough for his tastes. While she'd be useless in combat, he knew she was certainly a nuisance to anyone who ever met her, and she was capable of snatching the thing… and randomly pushing buttons to make it explode. That much he knew. So… he was left with but one option. He had to call his reinforcement. As much as he hated it, he had to call on… _him. _But then he'd have to find someplace neither of them could be detected… first things first.

As the droids circled overhead, Red X whistled.

Their master caught wind of the escape, and promptly vowed that Red X would not escape his almighty wrath.

Then again, he had been playing Beasts and Barbarians that day, so he was feeling a little overconfident at the moment.

Narrator's Voice from the Powerpuff Girls: Who is this mysterious scientist/superhero? Could it be a chemistry wiz, taking Trapster's knowledge and using it for good? Might it be another physics ace like Robin and Speedy, with freezing projectiles and other neat gadgets? Or is it someone more familiar?

And who might be Red X's accomplice? Who could get him out of a heavily guarded lab that easily and why would he have to relocate to remain undetected? All these questions and more shall be answered… eventually.

TTTTTTT

The ride to Gotham was uneventful, and the sun was setting by the time Robin got there. He rode his R-cycle through the city, trying to find a place that stirred his memories, but nothing came. He rode on to Wayne Manor, via a little-known route that ended up at the back of the villa. He punched in his ID at the hidden door panel, went through the hidden door, then waited for a full scan of his vital systems. The computer confirmed that he was 'Robin', and let him through to the main part of the Batcave. At a far wall, he could see Batman's trophies. Scarecrow's gas pistol, Dr. Freeze's helmet, one of Harley Quinn's toys… every item a memory, but none of his normal life.

An old man in a butler suit came to greet him.

"Alfred," Robin said. Surely this man could shed some light on it? Robin knew that this man was a trusted ally, a friend, but for some reason he couldn't remember talking to him about anything other than fighting crime.

"Ah, master Robin," Alfred replied," good to see you. Master Bruce has been alerted of your arrival and will be coming back from patrol shortly. May I ask, what is the nature of your visit?"

"Uh, I have some texts from a martial arts master I wanted him to look at. That and… well this is going to sound strange," Robin wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't even sure of what his question was.

"Strange, sir?" Alfred inquired.

"Well, I can't remember who I am. And I can't even remember remembering who I am," that was as far as he could explain it.

"You are Robin, are you not?" Alfred asked, confused at the youth's problem.

Robin took off his mask to clarify. He knew he had blue eyes, and his face wasn't really ugly, but he wasn't anything to write home about. Not that he knew where that home would be if he was, but that's beside the point.  
"I mean before I became Robin. I know I had a name before I came here, I know that I had parents, a family, but I can't remember them, I don't even know what happened to them."

"Oh, I see. Well, I'm afraid I can't help you with that, master Robin, sir. Things have become quite… complicated lately, and many people have come and gone in a short time. I'm sure master Bruce can explain it better than me," Alfred remained cryptic, but Bruce was just driving in and parking his BatMobile in the usual spot, so maybe it didn't matter.

The Dark Knight came out, took off his mask, and asked the one question Robin really, really didn't want to hear.  
"Robin? Is that really you?"

At this point, the poor young man was beginning to doubt it himself.

Alfred left to prepare dinner, Robin politely declined, settling on a sandwich, and then Batman explained himself.

"So… you don't remember who you are… in normal life?" Bruce asked.

Robin shook his head, taking another bite from the sandwich Alfred had made. It was something the man prided himself on: that no superhero enter his doors and leave with an empty stomach. His own bit to keep the world safe, and nobody could argue with him.

"Well, that's really, err… tough, I imagine" he continued.

If his mouth hadn't been full, Robin would have replied something terribly clever and on-the-mark, but as it was, he just glared at his former mentor.

"Well, I guess I can tell you why you can't remember. A few months ago, the Justice League came into contact with beings from another dimension, evil ones, bent on enslaving the human race using everything from nano-technology to magic to mass media. They were almost impossible to defeat, and the entire League might be dead or brainwashed by now if it hadn't been for their natural enemies."

This sounded familiar.

"The League fought the Archons," Robin said," and they were helped by the Invisibles."

"Right. I hear your new friend is a chaos mage. He's not…"

"He is. Or was. The Invisibles kept him in reserve, because he was unstable or something," Robin replied to unfinished question.

"Ah. Anyhow, the Invisibles warned us that our coming into contact with them had unbalanced the world we lived on. It gets complicated from there on in. When I say 'world', I mean a complete universe of things that… basically, all come down to different 'what ifs'."

Robin swallowed another bite from the sandwich.  
"Uh-huh, I think Juro mentioned something like that. Improbability, right?"

"That's right. You see, they believed that every world, the world as we know it, is actually a kind of hologram, an overlap of different spheres, layers of reality. These Archons had made a rupture to try and break other worlds, to contact the Archons that lived in other 'what if' universes. As a result, things that threatened other worlds now threatened ours as well. There have been ruptures opening up all over the world, but mostly in Japan, that lead to a different layer of reality, and one that makes it easier to pierce through the fabric of time."

"So you've got holes leading to different layers, holes leading to different 'what ifs', AND holes in time?" Robin was trying to keep up.

"Pretty much. But wait, the most important bit is yet to come. One of the things that came through was a device meant to align all the 'what if' universes our Earth is in, then to destroy it. Apparently if someone just blows up the Earth, another slightly different one immediately replaces it. But when it came to our world, it needed to weed out a lot of people who didn't exist in its reality. Basically, it had to force these people to become what they were in other realities, or it had to erase them. But to erase them, it had to follow certain rules. A person who died in an accident would be replaced, just like the Earth would replace itself every time. The only way to completely erase a person, was if that person engineered their own demise. They had to make several choices, of a high improbability, that would eventually kill them."

"Just out of curiosity, how do you know all this?" Robin suddenly asked.

"The Justice League's mages explained it, of course. Them and the scientists. And the Invisibles cells that contacted us. So, anyway, it started killing people that way, but again the Invisibles picked up on the threat. They concluded that because this… thing had to operate within a rigid set of rules, their chaos mages could somehow disrupt it, even destroy it."

"But that's not what happened, is it? Juro ended up against that machine, he destroyed it."

"True, the Invisibles never got hold of the machine, but that's not all. When the Archons of the other universe were defeated, the Invisibles of that world had returned home, but some, from other worlds still, have snuck into our continuum. The hole was still open. Somebody had kept it open, and actual rifts started appearing, letting events flow into different worlds like sand in an hourglass. Look up on the monster attacks in Japan from a few years ago; those weren't always in our history, but yet they happened in this perspective. One of the major rifts appeared in a region called Odaiba, and events from a different universe now apparently happened in this one as well. The Invisibles managed to close the holes, but they lost a lot of people doing it, and they never found out who had kept them open in the first place. This is where it gets interesting: the big rifts and the machine that tried to destroy the Earth are connected. Because that thing tried to exert an immense order on several worlds, something else, a force of complete disorder, was given a chance to manifest. It kept those rifts open to create the right atmosphere, and triggered an event that was felt through the entire continuum. The tremors of the event were tracked, by the League's mages, to an event now sixteen years ago. The profile, they say, suggests that it was the birth of a demi-god. Do you know anyone who has gods in their family, Robin?"

Raven. It had to be… It made sense; Trigon was the avatar of evil and chaos. Bruce apparently read his face.

"That's what they said," Batman broke the silence," put simply, the Archons from another universe broke into this one, that weakened the veil enough for the Guide Mark 2 to enter our reality and pull it along with rest of its victim worlds, and that thing's actions allowed for the death of countless unique lives, and their replacement with something that was done to death. People who would become exceptional were suddenly destined to be mediocre, dreams were shattered or undone, rifts were opened and closed, making our world a confusing tangle, and in return, it allowed the devil himself to bring a mortal child to this Earth."

"But that still doesn't explain why I can't remember anything," Robin persisted.

"Of course it does. The reason you can't remember having a normal life is because in this probability, in this reality, you never had one. A lot of people are having this problem as we speak, most of them mages or superheroes, or chaotic attractors."

Robin decided it prudent not to ask what that last one meant.

"Besides, you haven't exactly been on a straight track, anyway. You're too diluted, Robin, that's the problem," the boy's mentor chided him.

"Say what?" Robin was outraged, the sandwich now no longer in the way of his protests.

"Everyone who's been affected by this the way you are is somehow unstable; they acted very differently from their normal selves on a regular basis. I've only seen other people take the effects of this whole mess, because I've always remained much the same person. You, on the other hand, have been a criminal and you've gotten obsessions, not to mention all the other superheroes who follow your lead. The more people who have an identity like yours, the less value yours has."

"You're saying this is all my fault? I didn't want this to happen to me, Bruce! And if you aren't affected, why don't you just tell me my old name so I can be off?" Robin yelled, venting some pent-up frustration.

Bruce, in reply, calmly went to a compartment in the wall, and took out some photos. He showed them to Robin, but the boy didn't know what they were about. All of them showed Bruce with some dark-haired kid, on conventions, press conferences, or just days off. The weird thing was, they were all different people. Every single one of them had a different face, a different expression. There was no doubt that none of these boys were in any way related, save for the fact that they were with Bruce.

"All of these kids are Robin, or were Robin. I do remember some of them, but not all the details. And there are probably many more I just can't remember. They all existed in the same perspective as me, at one point. But with everything shifting the way it did, they probably just disappeared and got replaced every time. It's only after someone tells you how it works that you realise it's happening. So you see, Robin, there's absolutely no chance that I can tell you your real name. Nobody can, I'm afraid."

"If you couldn't help me, then why did you leave these books with the True Master?" Robin asked.

"The True Master?" Batman asked," never heard of him."

"Her. These booklets are supposed to show a special way of fighting. They specifically refer to the School of the Unseen. That's you, isn't it?"

"Sounds like it," Batman took the little book and leafed through it," energy punches? But you don't have any powers that let you do that…"

"I know, I'm trying to get them," Robin was fuming at this point," so you're saying you had nothing to do with any of this?"

"No," came the sullen reply," I didn't. If anything, this sounds more like a practical joke someone played on you. You don't have any aptitude in these things, Robin. All this… magic," Bruce rolled his eyes at the thought," is meant for mages, not us. Besides, why would you want it? Why would you need it? Is that chaote guy getting to you?"

Given the fact that Batman had apparently dealt with the Invisibles' chaos mages, he probably understood how incredibly annoying they could be, just by existing. The fact that they did things, or even just acted, in ways that didn't seem to follow any rules at all, be it social standards or otherwise, it just got confusing sometimes. But that wasn't the problem.  
"I need to get stronger. A lot stronger. And just learning how to kick harder and faster won't cut it, not this time. And if you can't help me, then I'll just have to find someone who can," Robin replied, taking the booklet and making for the exit.

"Before you go," Batman stopped him in his tracks," you should know that the League can't help you with that demon coming to Earth."

"I know. It's out of your jurisdiction. The only reason we're allowed to protect our city is because people are too scared of you Leaguers and that huge gun you have in the sky. Now that I think of it, whatever happened to that satellite of yours?" Robin asked.

"It disappeared when your friend made another change in the continuum. Everyone just got dropped back on the ground. Apparently, the kind of technology we had couldn't exist in this world, for some reason," Batman replied. He leaned back in his chair, as if he was in deep thought.

"So that's the kind of power he has, huh? Just like that, history changes, your weapons never existed, and space/time gets another blow?" Robin was feeling the pang of jealousy.

"Actually, I think he stabilises things every time he does that. I'm not sure how, but… the one you have there… he seems to act like a force of nature. A chaotic attractor with a chaos mage's powers… I wouldn't be surprised if he turned the moon into cheese," came the reply. He looked at his protégé, for despite everything, he did think of Robin, any Robin, as his protégé, or at least a fellow crime-fighter. He made up his mind.

Robin made to leave again.

"Wait," Bruce stopped him again. Robin could tell there was something he wanted to say, but he was having doubts about it. Maybe it was something dangerous?

"There's one thing that might help," Bruce slowly started," there's a cave just outside of Gotham, in the swamps where the zombie Brundy came from. It's been a place of initiation for many religions, and the Invisibles sometimes use it to break in new members. Events, they say, tend to flow towards it for everyone who decides to enter. The energies there are supposedly very primal, and very powerful. If there is anything that can reveal your original past, it'll be there."

TTTTTTT

"Now, my Reaper, do you know your task?" Trigon asked his youngest minion.

"Get to that cave, kill Robin, and feast on his entrails. And in return, I'll have a real existence, not this… haunting feeling."

"Good. Now… go," Trigon bade him.

When the tulpa clone was gone, Slade tried to clear something up.  
"Master, if he is only part real, even with Red X's belt, why do you not give him your Mark? Wouldn't that sustain him enough?"

"No. He is still only a collection of emotions, a ghost with a physical body, doomed to live with all the memories he is made of. If he were to become completely real, he would be free, yes, but we cannot do it with my Mark. He is a different kind of demon than me, lower. With my Mark, he would become too much like me."

"And then the chaos mage would only need to defend against one thing," Slade concluded.

"Do not speak to me of that blight, Slade!" Trigon was obviously angry; he never addressed Slade with his name," he will not stand in my way. He will be destroyed. There are legions of allies I can summon even if my own creations are overcome. But for now, let's see how the little Reaper does against your old apprentice."

TTTTTTT

Finding the cave was easy enough, hidden though it was in the old swamp. This place had been the site of the rituals that birthed the zombie Brundie, a creature not even the entire Justice League had been able to defeat, save Hawkgirl and her anti-magic mace. It made him wonder whether that said something about the swamp or the people who'd done the raising. He let that thought go. He was here for answers. He found the entrance: a hole in the ground that lead to naturally carved out stairs. He descended slowly, taking in all the strange pictures on the walls. He recognised Roman script, but that was impossible on this continent. He also saw Egyptian, which was just as befuddling, as well as Arabic and a few marks he might have caught glimpses of in some of Raven's spellbooks. It seemed as though the entrance was meant to tell the beholder that this place did not discriminate based on past, but embraced any and all heroes from all cultures. Or it just meant the graffiti-spraying kids who had visited this place had a surprising interest in history. Occam's Razor pointed to the latter, but something made him think about the other option. Something he couldn't place his finger on…

He came to a large opening, marked by a sign overhead. Robin was sure he'd never seen those symbols before, yet he knew what they meant:

"Destiny's Bowels. Where warriors learn their place in the Multiverse."

He also detected 'The buck stops here', but he really wanted to ignore that for now. The day had been weird enough as it was, and his gut told him it could only get worse. He stepped into the main chamber of the cave.

It was an amphitheatre.  
Like the Romans had made them, this was most definitely a naturally carved out amphitheatre. Behind him, the chamber curved out into a perfect circle, revealing a set of stairs eclipsed by the wall that housed the entrance. Stepping ahead, he saw that he was facing more stairs, again in a circle. There were several entrances, apparently, some leading into darkness, some into light, and he was pretty sure there was one leading into pinkness. He was definitely not going through that one. Putting his attention on a different level now, he looked up. There were stalagmites hanging from the ceiling, pointy ones at that, but something seemed odd. Taking in the makeshift arena, he noted the stalactites that formed another form of stairs on the arena itself; a series of platforms just flat and wide enough for close combat, and evenly spaced. He noticed that only someone with a very weak physical condition wouldn't be able to jump from one to another, and it made him wonder if this place really was an arena of Fate herself, or just some old set from a TV show he'd never seen? Again, Occam and his razor said this was probably the case, but that little knife couldn't account for the wretched pinkness of that one mysterious door. What was it, though, that seemed so off? He looked around again.

He looked, and he saw, or rather, he realised that he could see. The sun had been setting when he came in. He was deep inside the cave, yet he hadn't needed to light anything. There were lights coming from the walls, cool yet also neutral. He could stare straight at them and not be blinded. Then there were the stones. If this was naturally carved out, there should be limestone, yet nothing he'd seen even remotely resembled limestone. He'd been into a few caves in his day, and he knew what a cave wall was supposed to feel like, or even look like. It never looked like this.

This wasn't an ordinary cave. The stones here seemed hard yet flexible… beyond anything natural. What's more, it was too dry to be just a normal cave. There was no water dripping. And TV crews would have left some sort of mark on the scenery, a scratch, a food wrapper, anything, but this place was clean. Finally having analysed everything in his head, Robin could only conclude that this place felt like a battle ground, but a holy one nevertheless.

"This place is alive," Robin heard himself say. He wouldn't have minded normally, but the voice came from behind him. He felt the words more than he heard them.

"Can you feel it, Robin? No, of course you can't. This place… lives. It's a portal arena, to alternate timelines. A relic of world-altering magicks. And all I have to do to get it is kill you."

Robin turned around, slowly taking his bo staff.

"This is going to be so much fun," Reaper Robin readied his scythe, which he seemed to conjure out of his hands.

TTTTTTT

"Hey, BB," Juro greeted the shapeshifting teen," hope you don't mind I took out some of your mangas again. You've got an awfully big collection, you know."

"I know," Beast Boy replied, sagging into the sofa and flicking on the TV," man, I hate social stuff. Not that I didn't have fun at the zoo's new platypus section, but why doesn't anyone else have to go to these things?" BB started channel-hopping, ignoring the creases he was getting into his fancy tuxedo. He only ever wore the dratted thing for formal occasions anyways.

"Not much media attention, I suppose," came the reply.

"I mean, just once I'd like to see Starfire go to the space museum and see if she gets as bored as me," the green teen was sulking.

"You can always ask her; she's sitting right there," Juro looked up from the book and pointed towards the alien, who was staring at the view of the city.

"Starfire? Didn't notice you there. What's wrong?" the pointy-eared hero inquired.

There was no reply. Starfire just sat there and looked out the window.

"Apparently when Tamaraneans are feeling down, really down, it affects their body. First they lose their ability of flight, then their strength, then the bolts, and after a while they can't hear anything in the human speech spectrum. She can't tell you spoke to her," Juro narrated.

"So what's eating her?" Beast Boy stopped changing the channel and looked at Juro in full. He also noticed the book he'd borrowed from the manga-fan.

"A colony of extremophile bacteria capable of digesting trinitrotoluene. It's in her fifth stomach. Or was it the sixth? What do you think? She's confused about Robin. It's the same problem every time he says he cares. He can't get to grips with his feelings, and they're both worse for it," never once did the former pop magician look up from the little comic book.

"Bummer," Beast Boy solemnly added," so what are you reading, anyway?"

"Naruto. I like the ninja hand signs; it's a little like chaotism; some mages launch sigils with just their hands as well…" Starfire stood up and walked over to the boys. She spoke with no anger, no sadness, no emotion but frustration.  
"It is in my eighth stomach, not the fifth," she walked on a bit, and answered the boys' stare with," I can read lips just fine."

"Dude, even in a reflection?" Beast Boy asked incredulously, but Starfire had already turned around, so the comment never found its mark. Just as Starfire came out of the main room, Terra came in, with the two sandbags on her back.

"Hi, guys. Back from the zoo, BB?" she joked. She was always smiling nowadays.

"Uh. Tell me about it," the boy groaned," they kept trying to feed me seaweed snacks. I'm a vegetarian and even I think those are gross," he wailed on.

"Oh, hey, if you want to take your mind off of it; Raven and Cyborg asked me to help fix the T-car. Cy says a sand sheering with make her even shinier," she referred to her new and still developing skills in using the sand in her bags.  
"Yeah, sure," Terra never had to ask him anything twice," you coming too, Juro?"

"I think I'll just finish this one and join you later," he answered. He'd spent most of the afternoon practising his hyperventilating trances, so sitting still was sounding very attractive right now.

At that, the two ran, just for the fun of running. Beast Boy had to change into his regular attire first, but Terra went on ahead for the super-powered buff job to commence in full. When Beast Boy did catch up, he found Cyborg and Raven looking very interested at Terra, who manipulated some of her sand to spin around, using a hand sign that looked awfully familiar to the green teen. She basically had her fingers curled into a tiger claw, and curved her wrists ever so slightly. It was hauntingly familiar, but the reason eluded him, his brain shutting it out just because it was the idea of it was silly.

Meanwhile, Juro continued reading. He'd read this one before, of course, he just liked to brush up on it. The issue he'd borrowed detailed the hero's adventures in something called the Forest of Death, but it also gave a nice idea of what to expect of his enemies. One such enemy was Gaara, who carried a very large gourd of sand with him at all times. The page Juro was on right now showed Gaara overtaking a few unfortunate people using just sand. He took and hardened the sand into a fist that clenched around his victims, and basically squeezed until their entire bodies popped. Like all characters in this series, he did this with a hand sign. His fingers were curled into a tiger claw, and his wrist bent ninety degrees.

Juro really did begin to take a liking to this series…

TTTTTTT

The demon boy's lunge, or cut, actually, was met with Robin's bo staff in mid swing. The blade had come fast and hard from Robin's upper left corner, and the block left them both pushing their weapons against each other, the staff blocking both the scythe's blade and the long handle. It took Robin all of his might to prevent the thing getting any further. They broke away, both readjusting only their hind foot, to get a good swing at their opponent. Reaper Robin drove the scythe into the ground, the exact same swing he'd done before, but this time Robin didn't block it, he just let it slide past. When it did, it caused a tremor to go through the ground, lighting the walls a little more. Were the lichens on the walls reacting to their fight? Were those even lichens? Robin didn't think long about it, trying to push Reaper Robin away with the tip of his bo staff. He'd underestimated the sheer strength and speed of the attack; he wasn't in a good position to launch a counterattack. He tried to drive the tip of his bo into the Reaper's chest, hoping to get more breathing room, but the tulpa clone had completed the swing, driven the blade deep into the ground behind him. He twirled around his own weapon, swinging one leg, then the other, up and into the real Robin's chest. The first only tapped him, the scythe not stable enough on its own, but the second bore the full weight of the demon, needing only one foot to push off of. Again, as the two blows landed, the walls glowed more brightly.  
(A/N: if you want a visual of what just happened, look at Naruto, Assassin in the Mist. When the guy with the sword twirls around and kicks the other guy… same thing.)

'He's just as fast as Red X…' Robin thought,' he doesn't have the technology, but he moves exactly the way I pictured that character would. It must be the belt…' then he landed on the ground, his weapon dropped on impact. It finally dawned on him that this really wasn't some nightmare he and he alone could defeat. He'd thought so, but dealing with him in combat, from what he could feel, he knew now that this was far, far worse. He realised what he was dealing with; a being made of pure agony, hatred, and shame, with his own memories and experiences as a mere skeleton. He felt it. This was how Tom felt when Helen said she was breaking up. This was the embarrassment Haley felt when her deepest secret was smeared all over the school newspaper. There was a paralysing aspect to it all, a sense of helplessness, a reverberation. And it was enough to allow this thing to hit him physically. It was enough to torment this demon into obedience, to create the perfect fighting ghost machine, bent on carving out a real life free of the pain his sustenance brought with it. And he'd do it one dead body at a time.

Robin was thinking all of this at a faster rate than he could remember being capable of. Only a split second had passed, and Reaper Robin had used it to pull out his scythe and charge headlong. Robin, still prone, realised he wouldn't be able to defeat this enemy alone. But he could not, would not allow Reaper Robin to hurt anyone when he could stop him. He decided, right then and there, that he would fight or die, or both. But he would not walk away; he would not feel sorry for himself for not having powers, for an instant nothing mattered but this one fight.

Reaper was too close to block the blade now. Still down, Robin took one of his Birdarangs, the razor sharp kind he only used when fighting steel robots or golems. If he couldn't stop the last attack, he could at least kill the guy as a last act.

Robin shot up, rolling his legs under him with the blade in hand, taking a crouching position in the blink of an eye, so he could drive the blade down real deep when it happened. Reaper Robin's scythe was ready to kill, an upward swipe about to cleave the Boy Wonder in half. Robin breathed out, for the last time, he reckoned, tensing up to pounce.

Then his whole idea went down the drain as he heard and saw Reaper Robin getting hit in the head by an arrow with a photonic charge. It sent the Reaper careening over the floor, giving Robin plenty of opportunity to pick up his bo staff, himself, and put away the blade he was about to plunge into the guy's chest. Robin was still thinking. Obviously, this was good, but he still didn't feel like he'd won. Nevertheless, he greeted the friend who had saved his life.

"Speedy, good to see you. What brings you here?" for someone who two seconds ago had resolved to die in a stalemate, he certainly sounded cheerful.

"Gremlins. And I think a pair of white mice with cows. What about you? You okay? Not like you to take a hit like that," the archer replied, keeping his bow trained on the now recovering Reaper Robin.

"Be careful," Robin urged," he's not… normal."

"Well, well, another Robin clone," the not normal Robin clone mocked," okay, I can do a two on one."

Speedy let loose another arrow, which was cleaved in half. Even getting hit in the head hadn't caused this guy to drop his weapon. The arrow exploded into a net, giving the two heroes an opening to attack, but Reaper Robin conjured two smaller blades in his arms and cut through it, meaning they were in melee again. Speedy used his bow as striking instrument, never getting the time to take another arrow, and he had to be careful to let the blows slide past his weapon, rather impact on it. He lost an awful lot of bows that way. Robin hammered as hard as Speedy, but Reaper Robin was just too fast. He'd barely sideswiped a bow and he hacked at the owner already, never actually getting a decent blow in because some retard on his left was trying to beat him with a stick. The violence pumped through his veins, more fuel for his existence, his curse. He kept hearing voices, cries of agony that enraged him and fuelled him. Still faster he went, not caring who he was hacking into, not caring who was hacking into him, just that he was winning. And all the while, the blows triggered the walls to glow more brightly, creating a pattern of muted flashes, definitely there, but not distracting. Did this place **want** them to keep fighting?

They broke away, Robin on Reaper's left, Speedy on his right, and two little scythes in both hands. The demon boy wasn't even breathing hard. Speedy got a good look at him now; a costume that seemed like a bastard version of Robin's apprentice costume (it had been on the news, after all) and his Red X costume (only a few people knew, but the suit had also been on the news). Black and grey were the dominant colours, but the outline of the body was definitely the apprentice model. Plus, the 'R' symbol somehow resembled a scythe crossing with a blade. Other than that, the two Robins might be twins.

"How did he get so fast?" Speedy asked.

"I'm not sure," Robin replied," but he can't keep this up forever."

"I don't need to," came the reply," just long enough to kill you."

"How?" Robin asked, though Speedy was probably wondering about the same thing," if you're that tough; you could've fought all the Titans when you first showed yourself."

"True, but I needed the belt first," Reaper didn't ease his fighting pose one bit," as a hero, you are defined by your belt, the same way Speedy is by his bow and arrows. It's all about ideas, you see," his face took a mad look then," I am the next generation of Ama Geddo Mon, and by having this belt, I may not copy the tech you made for the Red X suit, but I do own all of his traits. All of the strength you wanted to have, all the power you took from being that person, is mine now. Every little wet dream, every boyish fantasy flows through my mind, along with all the haunting energies that empower me. This persona that you created is now a part of me. I am every bit the fighter you dreamed of being. I am the real Red X," while saying this, he never broke eye contact. In fact, none of the fighters had so much as batted an eyelid since the last blow had landed.

If they had, they would have noticed the figure sneaking up on Reaper Robin and very quickly undoing his belt, putting it on himself.

"Actually, I'm the real Red X," Reaper Robin heard someone say behind him. He could feel the tendrils of connection between himself and the Red X persona being cut… and he didn't like it one bit. The belt wasn't glowing; no Xinothium, but Red X had a very large disk on his back that would remedy that in about two hours.

(A/N: I warn you, the serious nature of this chapter is about to go down severely. If you like to think this is a serious work of fanfiction, DO NOT READ ON! You have been warned.)

"What are you doing here, X?" Robin asked, still not taking his eye of the Reaper, still not easing his stance.

"Stole some stuff from a midget," he pointed to the disk on his back," had to get help from a friend to get out, friend needed help with three witch sisters, then my friend made something glow and now here we all are. So who are these guys?" he pointed to Reaper Robin and Speedy," your evil twins or just clones?" he joked. Of course he knew Speedy.

"I am not Robin's clone!" the archer exclaimed, along with the demon. Strangely, they were still in their 'martial arts standoff' position, but Robin was finally starting to shift into something more comfortable. This whole situation reminded him of his talk with Batman. These guys, even though they weren't full copycats or clones, were still partially inspired by him, or even just affected. But he felt some relief in the fact that the other Robin hadn't shown up; the one he really didn't want to meet right now. Nope, he was spared the presence of…

"Robin! Robin! Robin" a parody of himself came flying in. It was as if the Universe had finished Robin's sentence, or just sentenced him, depending how one looked at it. He was, as it turned out, NOT spare the presence of…

"Larry," Robin greeted him, standing normally now, because this was getting just crazy," what are you doing here?" he asked as politely as he could.

"There's an enemy coming, Robin! I'm here to help you fight him! I found out he was the one who helped Red X steal the costume the first time! Isn't that great?"

"Wow… a faerie Robin. Who'd have thunk it?" Reaper was taking a normal stance as well, the sheer silliness of the situation overcoming even him. Only Speedy kept his stance, taking the chance to load an arrow. Red X noticed, but didn't really care. Reaper Robin didn't, either. They were just enjoying the show.

"Yeah, Larry, that's great, but really, whoever turns up, I'm sure me and Speedy can handle it, alright?" Robin pleaded, vainly hoping for some normality to be restored. Where was the Master of All Games when you needed him?

"Haha! You are mistaken, foe Robin! For now you have the greatest supervillain of all to deal with!" another one had entered the fray, this one having taken a raised platform first, so he could be in full view of everyone. His exclamation had lost its impact the moment everyone had looked at him, for he looked… disturbed, but harmless. This particular villain wore a costume inspired by Red X's; boots and gloves, and even a matching cape, with the only exception being that where Red X had black and grey for intimidation, this guy had red and black for sheer gaudiness. He also wore a mask like Robin's, which let everyone see his hair. It looked as though it was cut in the pattern of a broken flower pot, mainly due to the fact that it really had been cut using a broken flower pot as a model. Finally Speedy relaxed his pose and looked as irked/surprised as Robin.

"Oh, Jesus Christ, not him. Please, anybody but him…" he buried his brow in his fingertips, refusing to look up at the figure who had just commanded all their attention.

"Yes! It is I, Speedy, my nemesis: the Red Arrow!" the boy Speedy knew as Suzanne shouted. To add to his argument, the red-clad youth raised his hands and pretended he was addressing subjects of some kind. The other costumed boys then noticed the crossbow he had fixed to his arm. Speedy already knew, for he had dealt with this guy on one too many an occasion.

"Damnit, how many times do I have to tell you, I am NOT your nemesis! You're just a self-absorbed poser who acts like me and tries to copy everything!" Speedy fumed. Being from Steel City, he tended to swear more than his Jump City compatriots.

"Welcome to my world," Robin said to nobody in particular. That was a bad idea.

"What the Hell's that supposed to mean?" Speedy shouted, now red in the face. Reaper Robin was starting to have nervous twitches at all this; blinking one eye halfway every two seconds.

"He's got a point there, Yellow Arrow," Red X added," we all know you're just Robin's clone. Only reason you're not named Robin is he took the name first… you're a Robin clone, face it."

(A/N: I'm not making this up, this is true: if Speedy had been conceived before Robin, he'd have had the title. Robin is named after Robin Hood. Robin Hood had a bow and arrow. Robin does not, Speedy does. What is wrong with this picture?)

"Hey, if anybody's a Robin clone here, it's you! I've got skills with a bow and arrow none of you can match. And what have you got? A stolen suit that you can't even operate without Xinothium!" Speedy retorted. Larry kept himself out of the minefield this conversation was turning into.

"Enough! Now I shall destroy you all with my ultimate weapon of mass destruction and wreak havoc on the cities you once protected…" there was more, but Robin figured it wasn't important at the time.

"Does he always talk like that?" Reaper Robin asked. Speedy solemnly nodded. Red X was impressed at the archer's self-control. The Red Arrow was still ranting about how he was going to destroy them all. Robin turned to more important matters.  
"Is this the joker you came to warn me about, Larry?" he asked his floating counterpart, who'd been silently enjoying the thing since he'd arrived. Being spoken to snapped him back to attention.

"No, actually it was," Larry tried, but just then Red Arrow finished his threat.

"… and flushed down for all eternity! Bahaha bahaha haha!" he did his signature laugh and fired his arm-based crossbow at his fellow mask-wearers. The arrow swished through the air, had a very large glowing red tip… and was quickly caught by what looked like a faerie version of Red X.

"No, that's him, right there," Larry pointed at the obvious. The dark interdimensional imp quickly darted to his normal (not that you'd notice) counterpart, arrowhead in hand. He moved too quickly for even the eye to follow, and even as Robin wanted to lunge, Red X already had the tip broken open, revealing three tubes in a very distinct and familiar red.

"What do you know, the kid's got Xinothium. Guess I can just sell this thing then," he pointed to the still heavy disk on his back," and it also means I'm back for real now."

"What the…" Robin mumbled, along with everyone else.

"I swiped this disk from a little genius; it can make Xinothium out of thin air. Problem is, it's slow. Of course, with this…" he loaded his belt, the glow returning to it and all the components connected to it," I can keep going for a lifetime."

The faerie Red X now hovered right beside the real-world one.  
"Nice and smooth, just the way I like it," it gloated. It was… disturbing to see.

"Larry?" Robin asked.

"That's Rednax Egac Roinuj, my enemy. He's really strong and really fast. Kind of a jerk, too," came the reply.

"I call him Ronnie," Red X introduced his own comical version of himself," actually he was the one who stole the costume for me the first time we met, figured it would be more interesting. But really, as fun as this bunch looks, I have places to go, things to steal, and something to sell. And I'm guessing you'll be a little too busy to stop me, Robin," he turned around and started to walk off, and for a moment Reaper Robin thought he might actually get to fight again. The shock of losing the belt had subsided, and he had had it on long enough for some of its essence to become permanent. It wasn't much, but it would do. Then, Red X was stopped in his footsteps by a voice with a strange Italian accent.

"Not-a so fast, Red X," yet another warrior came out of the woodworks, and once again no one had any idea where he'd come from. He was standing on the seats of the arena, if that's what it was. He wore silver sunglasses that concealed his eyes, a black outfit with a belt holding a large 'D' shape with a star on it, and very shiny silver boots. It should also be noted that this latest arrival was very, very small. He pointed at the black-clad burglar and formally introduced himself.

"You have dared to enter my domain and steal one of my prized possessions! Now, from the darkest depths of science fiction comes the fury of the intergalactic defender of Justice! The Great Handyman, the Other Boy Wonder, The Genius know as…"

"Dexter?" What are you doing here?" Red Arrow interrupted him at the apotheosis.

"It's Dex-STAR, Mandark!" the hero genius retorted. Mandark, meanwhile, didn't object to not being called Red Arrow, as long as nobody called him by his given name, which was Suzanne.

"I thought I lost you in that meteor shower?" Red X asked.

"Great, him too," Speedy was fulminating.

"You should not have underestimated my-ah mechanical mastery, Red X," Dextar replied. Nobody wanted to know about the meteor shower, so nobody asked.

"You know him?" Robin asked his archer friend. Reaper Robin, meanwhile, was getting shaky from all this…talking.

"Yeah, we go to the same Chinese restaurant. Plus his sister's in the same ballet recital as Bumblebee's sister."

"Is he cool?" Robin continued.

"He's on our side, if that's what you mean," came the reply.

"Well… I suppose this puts us in a very awkward position," Ronnie added, putting up his palms while Larry gave him the finger… his magic finger, not the R-rated one.

Red X turned again to walk away, this time Dextar drew the D from his belt and aimed. Red X stopped.  
"This thing'll fetch a pretty penny. If you want it back, you're gonna have to get over here, stop me, and take it from me."

"That-a machine was made for the good of mankind, Red X!" Dextar shouted in reply. Even though he was quite a far distance away, X couldn't risk him being able to teleport and jump up on him, not from this position, even if his own teleportation device was online again.

"Pahaha!" Red Arrow decided to draw attention to himself again," you are both mistaken, for it shall be me who pries Dexter's invention away, and I shall use it to finally destroy his lab and him with it!"

"You know, I've had about all I can take from you," Speedy took aim at the red-clad youth, who was still standing on the platform in the arena.

An old saying came to Robin at that point. He wasn't sure where he'd heard it, or when, or even why, but he knew it nonetheless. The saying is as follows:  
"When you're up to your ears in alligators, you forget the original project was to dredge the swamp."

Here he was, off on an errand hoping to discover his identity, and he was quite literally swamped by people who had an identity like his. For those who lost track:  
He had to deal with a demonic Robin, Reaper Robin, made of nightmare matter and trauma. Then there was Speedy, who would always be considered a Robin with bow and arrows due to no fault of his own, and apparently he had an evil counterpart, Red Arrow, who'd dropped in as well. Then, of course, there was Red X, a rogue Robin whose costume was now fully operational thanks to Red Arrow's failed attempt to make a Xinothium-based weapon work. Add Dextar to the equation, who was smaller than everyone else, but judging from the look of suit would probably have a lot more tech to compensate.

And lastly, there was Larry, his interdimensional counterpart, who looked a lot like a faerie. And Ronnie, the same thing, for Red X. For the sake of whatever sanity he could muster, he decided to just not think about those two right now.

"Okay!" Robin called out," it's obvious that everyone here has a bone to pick with somebody, so let's just pick an opponent, get some space, and for pity's sake, try not to get in each other's way."

"Oh, are we fighting again? 'Bout time," Reaper Robin chided.

"Don't… you… start," Robin fumed in reply.

Much to his surprise, everyone followed Robin's lead without question. The faerie Robins went straight up to get their battle going airborne, Red X and Dextar flashed a few times before finally teleporting close enough to each other to start brawling on the spectator's seats, while Speedy and Red Arrow squared off on the raised platform in the arena.  
Then Robin faced the Reaper. They took centre stage.

"You've lost some of your power," Robin stated. Indeed, the costume of the Reaper now looked darker without the little red contrasts of the belt.

"I've still got enough power to take you on," Reaper replied.

The two charged, full power. The blow landed, and their weapons grinded against each other, bo staff against scythe.

The fight…

Archer Robin's Duel

Even though Red Arrow's projectiles had more speed and power than Yellow Arrow's, the wrist-based crossbow was no match for the longbow in close range, and Speedy's arrows could actually be used in a stabbing motion and not shatter, something Red Arrow had never considered, for he was a coward who preferred to avoid fighting altogether, unless his evil plans demanded it. It should be noted that Red Arrow was not only weak in fighting spirit, but also in fighting body. Put briefly, he was a lanky weakling whose entire martial arts repertoire came down to 'slap in face'. It should come as no surprise, then, that the archers' duel was mostly monotonous. Red Arrow shot, Speedy dodged and returned fire, closing in, and Red Arrow, remembering the meaning of the word 'pain' and recognising it when it was headed towards him, fled, jumping to a higher platform. This kept going for a while, Red Arrow feebly trying to avoid Speedy getting close enough to hit him, and Speedy not even breaking a sweat while making his opponent run for dear life. Then, suddenly, dear life actually showed up. Or rather, a live deer. Red Arrow had tripped backward from the shock, now on his back he looked at what had transpired. A live deer had landed right between them. Red Arrow looked up right in time to duck away from a duck, taking the opportunity to make his escape.  
"Okay, who's throwing wildlife?" Speedy angrily wondered as he gazed up, then he noticed his foe was running again," hey, get back here!"

Faerie Robin's Fight

As always, Larry fought with heart, courage, and flying pieces of furniture. Ronnie, on the other hand, fought with cunning, guile and strategically placed though gravitationally impaired wildlife. A deer was flung, dodged and met the riposte of a sixteenth century sofa. A second round of attack in the form of three toilet seats met with a flock of ducks, one of which was black and had a speech impediment, but for the sake of disclaimer length it shall remain nameless. The two flying Robin clones spun around the stones hanging from the ceiling, and closed in for melee. Seeing as they were both evenly matched, they each resorted to the most forbidden and deadly martial arts moves their world knew.

"Got your nose," Larry held Ronnie's mask in a deadly nose-hold. At least, where he figured Ronnie's nose was, it was kinda hard to tell with that funny SM mask he had on. Ronnie returned the onslaught on his nose.

"Got your underwear," the faerie Red X grabbed Larry's underwear, the shock enough to release him from the nose-hold, and Larry cringed when his diabolical opponent raised his Namtab underwear to neck height, a full atomic wedgie in the making, his greatest weakness. Thankfully, he had devised a counter for it after long and arduous training.  
"Wedgie Counter Whirlwind!" Larry exclaimed, spinning around so fast Ronnie lost grip. The otherworldly Boy Wonder braved the pain of his underwear, even as his spin allowed it to return to normal. But that wasn't all this wedgie counter did. The sheer speed of it, not to mention the bully's surprise, had allowed Larry to quickly grab his dark counterpart's underwear, and now Rednax was at the mercy of Larry's mighty "Titan Wedgie". Larry conjured an anvil in a fit of classic cartoon violence, and basically held on as the weight on Larry fell down, with him underneath it, and Ronnie's underwear stretching out to ridiculous proportions, even by his standards. The black faerie fell to the floor, his fall slowed down by the elastic, of course. When he landed he interrupted Red X and Dextar in the middle of their techie showdown. They both only commented that Ronnie's predicament 'had to hurt,' before he was swung back up by the very impressive rubber band of his underpants. After that, Dextar and Red X resumed their fight on the stairs of the arena.

Red X vs Dextar: the technology of the future clashing today

Being of a small stature, Dextar had preferred the high ground these stairs provided, giving him enough room to launch a series of flying kicks. Both fighters had a built-in teleport device, and neither of them was too stingy on it, either. They both kept warping around until they were at the perfect distance from each other, and then the weapons started flying. At every move one made, the other would have an answer. A sticky red X met with a golden oily 'D', a heavy-impact 'D' was intercepted by exploding X-shaped shuriken, and when they both realised their suits were evenly matched, they each drew their close-combat weapons, Red X with his upper-hand 4-bladed daggers against Dextars D-shaped brass knuckles. The weapons clashed as they both lunged and blocked and parried, until Red X finally revealed a clean opening to attack.

"Waa Shitaki!" Dextar shouted his now signature battle cry as he pounded Red X in the gut. It didn't seem to faze him.

"Waa Shitaki?" the burglar asked," what was that supposed to be, free judo lesson number five?"

"How'd you guess?" came the reply, along with a grey boot in the stomach.

Thoughtform clone against Boy Wonder: Reaper Robin's real form

Even as the others had started fighting, Robin had felt some vague sense of realisation tugging at the back of his mind. Even as Reaper Robin started attacking again, Robin felt that even though the demon's powers hadn't diminished that much, he wasn't quite so desperate to keep up with him anymore.  
"It's no use, Robin," the demon taunted after another swipe to the head," I'm still stronger than you."

"No, you're not," Robin replied simply, letting the sense of enlightenment guide him. He didn't even have to bring up his guard anymore; he could read all of the Reaper's moves like it was nothing. He sidestepped, jumped, ducked, all at the last second, but all perfectly executed. He could see the Reaper's moves before he made them. He could dodge every single attack headed his way.

And then, just like that, he decided to attack. Predicting a cut to his knees, he clipped Reaper Robin's kneecap with a quick swipe of his bo. Anticipating a follow-through with the blunt end of Reaper's scythe being pushed to his chest, he stabbed his opponent swiftly in the same motion he felt Reaper would have done. What was this? Was he using a new power? Was this what it felt like to see through every move of your opponent and copy it?

Reaper Robin rolled away and, even as he grabbed his throwing knives, he was shocked to see a disk coming towards him, too quickly to intercept. He only managed to raise his free arm to the projectile, and was thanked for the effort with a freezing wave of smoke around him. Exactly how it worked, Reaper Robin didn't know, because it was never part of Red X's arsenal nor was it ever meant to be. Still, he managed to use his smouldering anger to break free from the icy prison, thoroughly irked now.

"That was just a lucky shot!" Robin shouted. Reaper Robin was confused. Did they just both say the same thing at the same time? He was pretty sure there was no connection between them that would allow that kind of thing. Yet there it was. Reaper Robin got up and quickly withdrew his scythe, only to find Robin was going through the exact same motions himself. It was like looking at a mirror. He rushed to draw his shorter blades, only Robin already ad his up, in the fighting pose Reaper had planned to take.

"That…" Reaper said," is just plain annoying," Robin finished his opponent's sentence.

The two went at each other, but the result was the same as their last tumble. Robin realised as they fought that even though the Reaper had an essence of a ghost, making him stronger and faster than his human counterpart, Robin's newfound skill allowed him to predict every move and just strike first. It didn't matter that Reaper was stronger or faster, not by this margin. He could see the demon's moves and use them before he did, breaking through every defence even before it was set up. And yet at the same time, it all felt a little off. It was like he wasn't himself, that it was someone else now slamming the bo into the Reaper's face, then kicking him firmly in the stomach. His eyes didn't just take in every move Reaper Robin was going to make, but everyone else's as well. All around him, he could see the fighting, and see through it.

He felt light-headed.

Reaper Robin went to shout at him, but he couldn't hear it. He felt himself being lifted by a light, embraced and covered by it, even. Everything faded away, or maybe it was just him fading. Perhaps all the fighting had caused the cave to reach some kind of critical mass.

In any event, when he could see again, he found himself at some strange event called a 'Comic Con'.

All around him there were stands about people he knew or heard of: Batman, Justice League, Spiderman, and then a few he hadn't heard of, like Animal Man. Most shocking, however, was the stand about the Teen Titans. He walked there as casually as he could, not an easy trick because he was pretty sure he was in shock. Apparently he wasn't the only one wearing a costume, either, so he blended in quite nicely. At the stand, there were toy figures of him and his friends, but none of Juro, which actually wasn't that big of a surprise. He heard two guys debating over whether or not the Robin the show was Dick Grayson or Tim Drake. One guy used Larry's real name as an argument, and Raven's vision when she'd entered his mind. How much did these people know? Did he have no privacy at all?

The reality, or rather lack thereof, struck him at last. This was one those 'what-if' universes that hadn't been destroyed, and he knew now what those defining 'what-ifs' were. What if he wasn't real at all? What if he were fiction, and this was the real world? What if his entire existence depended on the opinion of people whose only defining characteristic had to be that they watched television or read comic books? What if the real reason he couldn't remember was because so many people had different opinions about who he should be? Dear God, and this was just one world. There had to be millions like this, that all had him as fiction of some kind or another. And each world had millions of people in them, and how many had thought of him as a hero, or a character in a story? But this last thought led to a terrifying question: how many stories had he really been a part of? How did they all begin, and more importantly, how did they end?

At this last thought, he fazed through reality again, back where he had left off. The cave was still there, the fight was over, and the good guys had won. Larry had sent Ronnie home crying for his mommy, Speedy had given Red Arrow a beating he'd remember for a good long time, and Dextar had somehow managed to snag his machine back from Red X. Of course, when it turned out he was the only bad guy left, X had made a prudent escape, not wanting to risk any surprises from a bunch of Robin clones.  
And Reaper Robin? He'd just walked out unopposed when Robin had disappeared, clearly frustrated at not getting… whatever it was he had planned to get. That was half an hour ago now. Robin had been gone for half an hour, though it had only felt like half a minute.

"Well guys, it's been fun, but-a now I've-a gotta go back to my lab before my seester blows it up… again," Dextar basically said what everyone was thinking, except for the Italian accent and destructive sister.

"You okay?" Speedy asked as they exited the same way Robin had come in. Strange thing was, everyone had apparently come through a different door, that was actually the same door when they went back.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Robin decided not to let anyone in about his newfound insight into existence as they knew it.

"It's crazy, isn't it, us meeting here like this?" Speedy pondered as they finally came out of the cave.

"Oh, I don't know, this isn't so bad compared to some other crazy stuff we've seen," as if to prove Robin's point, Larry came flying by.

"Well, guys, see ya later!" Larry said goodbye, and disappeared into his own crazy world.

"Okay, Robo Dexo 2000, let's go home," apparently, Dextar had come in a giant robot shaped like a rapper, with bling and shades and everything. Its foot opened up to let the pilot enter, and a few seconds later it took off into the sky.

"Fancy set of wheels he's got. Or feet, I guess… I take it he's already an honorary Titan?" Robin asked.

"Yep. That big thing's come in handy a few times. Plus, he's got his own spaceship, which saves us the trouble of building our own. Still lives at home, though," the Yellow Arrow replied, turning to his friend-in-arms," what happened to you in there, Robin? One moment, you're there, the next… you're just not."

"Doesn't matter. Whatever energies are inside that place, they won't go critical anytime soon. Let's just say I had an experience that showed me how small I really am compared to the Universe. Not really a big deal."

"You're sure you're okay?" Speedy persisted, putting his helmet on and mounting his bike, the Flaming Arrow.

"I'm sure. Just have some thinking to do, is all," came the reply.

"Well, I'm off, then," and with that, he departed as well.

Alone at last, Robin put on his helmet, mounted his R-Cycle, and hit the ignition. It wasn't important who he had been, or even if he had been someone before being Robin. He was Robin now, the Boy Wonder. He would be for as long as he had to be, until he had to be someone else, someone better. He contemplated his newfound power as he started to ride the road out of the swamp. Such insight, such speed even thought he didn't really move any faster… he might not be able to control it consciously, but it was a start. It was something for his future.

He rode the country road through the swamp, leaving his past, unknown or non-existent, behind him.

End of Chapter 25

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Author's Notes 2: Yes, it took a long time, no, it won't be that long next time, really. The person who was behnd Red X's mask is Xander Cage Junior, for those who don't know. Xander Cage is the main character of the movie "XXX", and yes, there was a chaosstar in that thing. Also, for those of you who are wondering about Terra's training: yes, it is exactly what you are thinking. That shouldn't be a big surprise, but how the Titans will react when they find out, not to mention Terra herself, that is a big surprise. Also, when reviewing, keep in mind this chapter did not go through the same extensive spell-check as all the other ones, it was kinda rushed, so I apologise for any errors I missed whilst glancing for them. 


	26. Ashes of the Risen

* * *

A little child dies, but not for real.

A little human dies, but not for real. Its heart has become so still, it is found to be dead. The little human is buried with naught but a music box…the snow covers its grave, and the child awakens to the sound of its toy, resounding in its coffin.

Crack…

(A fist erupts from the ground)

Author's Notes: I have returned, things have been rough, I am STILL NOT QUITTIN' this story!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans; I do take credit for Reaper Robin and the new character introduced here, but seeing as they wouldn't exist without the originals, that's not saying much. I also don't own the board game referenced at the end of this chapter. Short intro, story now!

* * *

Chapter 26: Ashes of the Risen.

_" People say 'a phoenix rises from its ashes' like it's a good thing. What the fuck? If a phoenix were to light itself on fire, these days, it would be shot on sight. Think about it: those things never die. So they never stop consuming the planet's resources, or the Universe's, for that matter, they never stop reproducing and what's more: they burn to stay alive. They consume things in the most literal sense and are reborn, leaving behind nothing but their waste: ashes. We know what happens to a phoenix when it rises, but what about the other bit?_

_What happens to a phoenix's ashes, after it's risen?"_

_Weidar, Gale Master of XYZ 392_

"Reaper is off venting his frustrations again," Slade said," he's been doing a lot of that lately."

Trigon grumbled, sending tremors through the realm.

"Yes…if this keeps up, he won't be of any use to us."

"He has lost much of his substance. He is juvenile frustration incarnate, and without any symbol to latch unto…"

"I'm aware of his limitations, slave. I had hoped to slay of my daughter's friends with this kind of demon, but perhaps… a different approach is in order."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Take away their material belongings first. Destroy their infrastructure."

"You mean demolish the T-Tower? How?" Slade risked questioning the demon.

"I know you have attempted it yourself and failed. Your mistake was relying on schemes and elaborate machinations. This kind of quest requires something a little more… blunt. This calls for a blind, uncaring and unrelenting force of destruction."

The second magic mirror matrix Slade had collected from the spirit realm came into view, merging with the free energy he'd been gathering from high schools and juvie psychiatric wards. The two met to form a glowing red-hot globe; a demonic placenta to nourish the thoughtform clone already growing in the heat of the underground.

Slade marvelled at the sight.

"I do so enjoy a good throwback once in a while."

Kai and Terra were going over manoeuvres again; rapid fire pebbles, huge boulders and of course sand-based defence and attack. The little gourds she carried on her belt and back hardly bothered her at all now; her body had gotten used to the extra weight, not only putting up more muscle, but actually enveloping the sand in her aura, making it a more reliable part of her arsenal. Things were calmer than usual: the other Titans were off in space to check up on a civilian recon satellite. Mayor Tilton had thought it prudent to give the Titans a non-crime related assignment, so that when they returned Terra to public life, they'd have a PR-buffer, as he put it. This left the aspiring Earthbender and the tortoise dwarf alone in the Tower, save Silkie, who kept quiet most of the time.

Terra was just practising her blocks when Kai froze. He looked around, sniffing the air.

"We have to get inside. Now," he ordered.

Stopping Terra's protests, he took her and Silkie to a safe room. After firmly shutting the door, he ran as fast as his little legs allowed to the main control room. He pushed a button with his clawed hand and sent out a distress call.

"This is Titans Tower of Jump City. We are under attack by a Code Red enemy. Repeat: Code Red enemy. Request immediate backup. This is not a drill," he added that last, mostly unnecessary bit to erase any doubt. His senses told him there was little time. Whatever was coming, it was coming in fast. He went to the main gate.

Sensing an attack coming from underground, he morphed his claws into fingers and made a hand sign. Slamming his hands into the ground, he caused a waterspout to shoot out of the ocean floor, catapulting a young, lithe girl into the air. As she landed, Kai could see her ashen-black hair and what looked like mascara. She was dressed in a dark grey copy of a costume he'd once guided a young man into removing. So this was a thoughtform clone, like that Reaper Robin. Only this one was clearly modelled after Terra.

The two energy-based lifeforms regarded each other, standing face to face on the rocky beach.

"I am Kai, which is short for kaijin, water spirit. I am a kappa, a turtle demon of tricky and deceptive disposition. I am part of the living spell that brought the Titans together, and part of my aspect is that of a mentor elemental. So… who are you, to challenge me?"

"I am Tephra, means ashes. I am sorrow, despair, sadness. But above all, I am death."

That explained it. This thing was made of negative emotions, the skeletal framework provided by Terra, and the sustenance…Kai guessed it was mainly teenage sadness that made her whole, while the other one, from what he'd heard, was pure male, or boyish, frustration. And to make matters worse; this thing didn't need any physical base like Red X's belt to draw power, because Terra's own power was one that bridged the ether and the physical. Plus, Terra's power was sure to have combined with her own negative emotions to at some point, which meant that this Tephra person had existed before being summoned. It was probably her, or rather the whole of ideas she represented, that had caused Terra's extreme astral infection, locking her in stone.

Kai contemplated all of this as the tulpa standoff continued. The ashen-haired girl squeezed her hand into a fist. The pint-sized turtle adjusted his footing. How to best strike at this one?

A stream of fire erupted from the girl's hand. It was filthy, clotted, corrupted with can only be described as burning dirt. The stream became an enormous ball that impacted on the Tower's shields, which Kai had luckily remembered to switch on. The forcefield took both the heat and the pile of dirt it carried, but it wouldn't stop anyone from actually entering if they just walked up to the thing, which was exactly what Tephra planned to do. She couldn't see her target, but she reckoned she'd made turtle soup of the thing.

However, if nothing else, the Invisibles make sturdy servitors.

As she stepped forward to properly lay waste to the Tower and anyone inside, Tephra was stopped short by a blue uppercut launched from underground, with one very angry turtle in its wake. True, Kai's head would only reach the girl's stomach, but his jumping prowess let him give her one wopper of a blow to the chin.

Careening back, Tephra barely managed to put up a wall between herself and Kai; a searing hot wall of half-molten lava.

Kai retreated his fist as soon as he felt the burn. Judging by the murderous look in the girl's eyes, she preferred the mid- to long-range, consistent with the emotions she was made of. She wanted to strike with impunity, and felt that any who laid a hand on her automatically deserved to die. She was just a petulant child, not at all familiar with the mechanics of combat.

Just like Terra was as Slade's apprentice. This one hadn't had too much development yet, meaning her powers and personality had to follow a fixed pattern.

Kai pressed his attack once the burn had healed. Darting around the now cooled wall, he led with a backhand to her side. Hastily, Tephra blocked the blow with her arm, but Kai just kept going. In a smooth motion, he grabbed a piece of her lower back and let himself slide in between her legs, then drove his hind paws into her stomach, ending in a summersault that left him facing a flabbergasted lavamancer and his back to the Tower.

Catching her breath, Tephra called forth a wave of boiling earth, blood red energy pouring from her arms. The wave rose up high and wide, just over half the size of the Tower, which was still pretty impressive. Kai looked on in surprise. She was stronger than he'd given her credit for.

The wave came down hard and fast.

A lot stronger.

Kai was lost in a sea of heat, pressure and darkness.

When the dust settled, a rocky mass stood between the girl and the Tower. That little speed-bump of a turtle hadn't lasted long, but still long enough to be annoying. Now to do what she'd come for…

A crack appeared in the mass. Tephra stopped.

Another crack.

"Not possible…"

An ash-covered blue hand came out.

"Un…bloody…believable."

Dragging his steaming, dirty carapace out of the volcanic ashes, Kai the kappa worked out his strategy. The main goal was to keep the Tower intact, which meant stop her from penetrating the shields. She preferred the long range, and had enough power to a short-ranged attack at bay.

He only had one option: hit her hard, hit her fast and keep punching 'till it stops being funny.

Preparing for another round, he took a deep breath. Tephra shot blazing ribbons at him, which he dodged with a great leap into the air. The lava-wielding girl squinted as the turtle got right behind the sun. She tried another shot, but was stopped short by a blue beam of energy that hit her in the stomach like a mule.

'Good,' Kai thought,' looks like the stomach's her weak spot. Makes sense.'

Coming down from his jump, he twirled around in a short and brutal spinning kick towards the girl's ankles. As soon as she was flipped up, Kai completed his spin and drove his the back of his forearm into her gut. The girl's eyes closed as her face contorted in pain, but only for the split second it took for her body to be launched into the rocky ground. Before Kai could split open her skull and put her out her misery, her eyes shot open and her body began to boil, along with the earth around it. The only thing Kai managed to hit was ashes.

'She's gone underground. Either she's hoping to get an ambush, or…'

anticipating her move, Kai put his hands on the ground again and cast forth another watery projectile, one that only formed on contact. His enemy had clearly counted on him being able to only manipulate water to a degree, not summon it.

But as he cast the water, he realised his mistake. Steam erupted from where he'd placed his hands, giving him only a moment 's warning that he was about to get searing hot lava in his face.

Despite the painful counter-attack, Kai's own waterbomb found its mark and blew the girl to the surface again. She was in better shape than he was, though: his face was burned, eyes unable to fully open. Tephra had her back to the Tower, she'd gotten past Kai, but she didn't want to leave him in this injured state, not when she could do a lot worse.

"Aww, look at that. Does it hurt? It looks that way. It's game over for you, little one," she taunted him.

'Damnit, I'm not healing fast enough. If she goes on the offensive now,' Kai didn't get much thinking time, as Tephra started shooting a volley of glass shards at him, black volcanic glass capable of tearing his skin to shreds and piercing even his hard shell. Biting through the pain on his face, he jumped to the side. He winced as two of the black shards made paper cuts in his right arm, the ones aimed at his face nearly clipping his ears off. He could see Tephra was enjoying this; she looked almost ecstatic. Born of pain, she delighted in inflicting it to others. She was single-minded, torment incarnate, or rather 'being tormented' incarnate.

With his eyes and face hurt as they were, he couldn't risk lunging at her. The only thing he really could do now was to try and dodge her attacks and hope he could recover quickly enough. That tactic went up in smoke, though, when Tephra followed up her attack with a choking cloud of dust. Kai couldn't risk going underground in this situation, so he left the cloud the only safe way there was: up. Just as he feared, the glowing hot streamers of flame impacted on his shield, knocking the air out of him and sending him flying towards the ocean.

"Enough of this," she got a little closer," time to get you out of the way," she raised her hand at him," then your Tower."

As if on cue, gusts of steam erupted in front of Kai. True, he wasn't in any position to be manipulating water, but the Atlantean who'd just arrived was.

"Aqualad," Kai greeted him," I must say, your timing is impeccable."

Tephra tried to look surprised, but she was soon too busy dodging arrows, Speedy laying down a rapid fire from the T-Car 2.

"We got the emergency call," he said, not even taking his eyes off the raven-haired girl darting around.

"Well, so I see. Watch out for her; she uses lava, and she's tricky to boot," the maimed turtle added.

Tephra, meanwhile, had recovered from her initial shock and launched a counter-attack: red energy blazing from her hands to form a burning hot missile aimed at the car. Aqualad was fast, though: in a fluid motion he sent a serpentine body of water from the ocean to the mass, letting it cool and turn to harmless stone. As the thing landed on the ground, Kai noticed two flasks of water on the boy's back.

'Not another one…' he thought.

And even as he thought that, he wondered why the other Titans East weren't joining in the fray. Random should have had some experience by now, and the twins were a force to be reckoned with, so why would they stay in the car?

Kai's attention turned to Tephra again, as Aqualad helped him up. A shrunken Bumblebee zapped the lavamancer right in the face, and it would have been an eyeshot, too, if the girl hadn't bobbed her head at the last second. The follow-up, though, did connect: returning to normal size in a heartbeat, Bumblebee slammed her foot into the still stumbling girl's stomach, knocking her down. Tephra nearly caught Bee in a patch of boiling rock, but only managed to burn the soles of her shoes as the winged hero took off.

"Wow," she gasped, glancing at her shoes," you weren't kidding; she is tricky."

An egg dropped out of the Titans' vehicle. It hung in the air a little, sprouting short legs and arms. It fluttered them a little to keep its trajectory.

"Am I hallucinating, or did a huge egg just drop out of your car?" Kai asked. He didn't get an answer, or rather it came in the form of touch: it lightly tapped him on the head, and when it did, all of his injuries instantly healed in a flash of light.

"I didn't know you had a healer on your squad," Kai mouthed his surprise.

Said healer then started bouncing this way and that, confusing the enemy with its erratic motions and giving the occasional tackle. It was a strange sight, by any standard.

"Where on Earth did you pick that up?" Kai asked.

Bumblebee came buzzing past.

"You remember the girl your creator so wantonly dropped on our doorstep?"

Kai would have answered something involving shards of personality, completing development through rescue and fnords, but he decided against it.

"Yes," he simply said," that's not her, is it?"

"It is. She had a wristwatch surgically implanted on her. Apparently someone in the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation thought it was a good idea to give people implants that let them alter their genetic code, over their entire body."

The egg thing bounced away from Tephra, stopping just long enough to add to the conversation.

"It's called the Omnitrix upgrade. You like it?" and she was off, back into the fray.

"So she's a shapeshifter now?"

"Yeah, the thing's got a few kinks in it, but it's better than what she started off with: flight and an anti-grav gun."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Flying the way she did required a mind trick she couldn't use in combat, and the anti-grav gun… well, the instructions were printed specifically so anyone who tried to use it would blow themselves up. We kinda figured that out when we had to scrape our dinner off the ceiling."

"My…" Kai voiced," how perfectly random."

"Komaan kerel, ze is weg, we moeten niet meer achterblijven," a young lad appeared in what looked like a black lion-themed costume.

"J'arrive, j'arrive," another one came, this one in a red costume, modelled after…a rooster?

Speedy didn't seem to object to their late arrival, must have had something to do with Random's machine being a little unreliable. Kai simply looked on.

Tephra had already gotten seriously annoyed at the bouncing egg thing, but these two new arrivals really pushed her to the edge. As one, they unleashed a sonic assault, the black-clad one letting out a low, vibrating roar that shook the girl's organs, the red one a high, painful pitch that made it feel like someone was running their fingernails over her bones. Combined, the attack left her reeling, and she felt blood coming up through her throat.

Rushing towards the stricken girl, Random and the two new kids coordinated their attacks so she never got any breathing time. Even her glowing hot barriers didn't help, as her concentration was too shot to make them last in between Random's bouncy blows and the foreign kids' red tonfla and black shuko.

(A/N: a tonfla is an elbow baton, shuko are tiger claws carried in the palm.)

She succumbed to the onslaught, raising a smokescreen to cover her escape.

"Well, she's gone" Kai announced," drinks, anyone?"

Some time later, over soda...

"So, where are Mas and Menos?" Kai asked.

"Exchange program," Bee replied," so we got these two clowns to replace them."

"Wie noemt ge hier ne clown, hé, noedelkop!"

She had the black one by the collar before anyone could even blink.

"I told you, don't call me that!" she kept shaking him, messing up the manes trailing from his costume.

'Vraiment, c'est toujours la même chose avec vous deux,'' the red one replied.

"Don't start with me, chicken boy !" Bumblebee threatened in reply.

Kai turned to Aqualad, the voice of reason.

"I take it the red one's French and the black one's German?"

"Worse: they're both Belgian. The black one's called Leonard, apparently that means Lionheart, or something. The red one's called Plume, which is French for 'feather'. They both have vocal powers, one has a low pitch, the other a high one and they have some jumping ability. Leonard can break his fall like a cat, while Plume can sort of float in the air for a very short time. Leonard uses shuko claws in combat, Plume's got his elbow batons. Both mutants, both Belgian, yet strangely unrelated, save their themes."

Bumblebee, meanwhile, was thoroughly shaking up both of them.

"Leonard based his costume on the Flemish Lion, the symbol of the Dutch-speaking Northern part of Belgium. Plume based his on the Walloonian Rooster, symbol of the French-speaking South. They tend to get along about as well as those two parts, too. I hear there's some German-speaking guy who completes the set, but they've never met him. Belgian politics, it seems, get repeated on a smaller scale."

"Little love lost, eh?"

"I'm not sure about the details, but from what I hear, Belgium is one messed-up country. Been on the brink of a split for a few years, I think."

"Hmm…pity. I've wanted to visit Belgium ever since I saw Goldmember," Kai added.

"So, who did we just beat, anyway?" Speedy asked, calm returning.

"That was a thoughtform clone, with a skeleton of bad memories and flesh of sadness. Usually it takes months to incubate one, but I suspect Trigon the Terrible has a loophole or two," the mentor elemental replied.

"A skeleton of memories? What kind of memories would make a thing like that?" Bee asked.

Just then Terra walked in, Silkie in tow. An awkward silence fell. Bumblebee got the idea.

"Yes, quite a predicament, but for the moment I'm actually more interested in you, Bumblebee. You used to be an Invisible, I once worked with your friend Absinthe, before she left for Japan. What changed?"

"Well, me and her loved to roleplay. I guess that's really all there is to it: I liked the character I was so much I never went back. I think it's a morphic field thing that gave me my powers. Anyway, some people with the College asked me to infiltrate the H.I.V.E., and I got so immersed with being a superhero I never quit. Never told anyone about it, either. I just got caught in a role I liked. But we still get Invisibles stuff thrown our way, don't we, guys?"

"Uch, don't get me started. If it's not squid-worshippers it's hypno-toads," Aqualad moaned.

"Don't forget the ciphermen and tadpole farms," Speedy added.

"Or the viral graffiti," Random added.

"Of the lotsverzegelaars," Leonard jumped in," ou les peintures prédatoires," Plume finished.

"Yeah, those two've pretty much seen all of Steel City's weirder crimes in the few days we've had them."

To break the awkward tension that seemed to hang around her, Terra tried to join in the conversation.

"Hi," she said.

"Hey," Random returned the greeting," don't I know you from somewhere?"

"Uh… I wouldn't know. Memory's a blank. Some mage thing, apparently."

"Wow. That sucks," the orphan replied," that sucks hard."

"Say, Aqualad," Kai said out of nowhere," we have a slight issue with a family of dolphins nearby. If we don't move them, one of these days they'll get run over by the T-sub or fired by one of our enemies. We can't even get our guns up with moving targets in the water."

"Ah, I see your problem. Lead the way," Aqualad got up from his seat and followed Kai out of the room.

"Good thing you came, actually. I'd do it myself, but my specialty's reptiles and amphibians. I can't do warm-blooded telepathy."

"Really? That's funny; you move like a warm-blooded creature, and I've always been able to do both," Kai and the Atlantean went out of the room.

"Oh, I am warm-blooded. It's just an affinity I have, is all."

"Huh… strange," Aqualad said.

Suddenly, Kai changed the subject.

"Okay, we're out of earshot. I need you to listen very carefully to what I am about to say to you. When we get back, I need you to relay the same info to the Titans East, without Terra noticing."

"O…Kay. So what's the big deal?"

"I saw the way you moved in that fight," Kai raised an eyebrow to emphasize his remark.

"What? That Tai Chi? It just helps me control the water, is all."

"Yes, I understand that, but you can't say a word of it to Terra, especially about where you got the idea from."

"How would you know…" realisation struck the boy's face," why?"

"Right now Terra isn't her normal self. Juro put a block on her memory so she could develop her powers without being burdened by her past. But if she finds out exactly how her powers are being developed, her inner censor will activate and undo everything Juro and myself have tried to do for her."

"Wait a second, you mean to tell me…"

"Yes. She is being trained based on the same principles and ideas you seem to have incorporated into your repertoire."

Aqualad buried his finger into his brow.

"Why in the Dark Depths would you do that, if you know she'll be mad when she finds out!"

"Because Terra isn't like the other Titans. Her power was spawned from grief, some primal reaction she had to the Earth that took shape as a cave spirit. She somehow managed to tap into the Earth's morphic field, pulled an elemental into being that lived only to pity her, and it in turn made her even more of a martyr," Kai rubbed his eyes," the point is, her powers came from being in pain, and if she gets them back as she is now, she'll keep on being in pain. She is stuck in a downward spiral, and amnesia is the only humane way to get her out of it. Believe me, the Invisibles have other methods for fixing this type of thing, but they'd leave her insane or dead."

"Okay, I'm with you as far as that. But what makes you think you should train her to…"

Kai interrupted him.

"Because that keeps her powers intact in a different state of mind. She's basically becoming someone else, and she'll need to be that other person in the future, at least partially, if she is to have any kind of life, Titan or not."

"But why not let her know? She seems stable enough as is," Aqualad tried.

"True, but she's not a mage, despite her powers. If she was, if she had been, the answer would have been simple: a paradigm shift. But the problem is: she still thinks like a normal person. All she really knew, all she ever was, was a regular teenager, and the problems that came with it got blown up with her powers. She never had the hero's determination, a joker's resilience at adversity, or the enlightenment of a mage. And as such, there is no way her mind could accept an idea as absurd as the one you and I simply toy with. She'd grow angry, demand her memory be restored, and either she gets it back and she's bad off as before, or she doesn't and the whole thing starts over again, this time with amnesia thrown in the mix. She needs to fully accept this new truth before she gets any old ones thrown in her face."

Aqualad let the whole thing sink in.

"Okay… I think I understand. You want her to have a different personality to fall back on once her emotional baggage is returned."

"Exactly. I see Bumblebee has led you on many an Invisible business."

"Yeah, you could say that. Just one more question I have to ask: I hear you're a part of a living spell that started this whole… Titans thing. Care to explain?"

Kai looked a little lost in thought before he answered that.

"Hmm, that. Well, basically, when Slade came to Jump City, he had some access to the Archons' technology. They're basically behind every slavery, crime or conspiracy. I take it you're familiar with them?"

"We ran into a lower one a while back, not the ruling five."

"Well, you get the idea, then. The basic problem that the Jump City cell of Invisibles had is this: it takes Invisibles to fight Archons. But it takes superheroes to fight supervillains. 'As above, so below,' any chaos mage will tell you. It's just like an organism defending itself against a new disease. When the disease mutates, the body must adapt. Now, altering chance events is relatively easy for people with the kind of power we're talking about. So the five Invisibles that were here, Juro included, made it so Slade would have a suitable enemy to fight him. Only Slade evolves as well, so the spell, and the heroes, need to evolve with him. That's why I came into the picture; to provide a sentient element. Plus, Juro has a certain…reality handicap that made him more suitable as a superhero than an Invisible. He adopted a very specific persona that allowed his powers to grow, but that sort of backfired when Terra came into the picture: his superman complex triggered when she was turned to stone, something that wouldn't have happened in the first place if there hadn't been any Teen Titans here. I'm sure you know how it is: Bumblebee adopted her persona as well."

"Yeah…that never really made sense to me."

"Basically, the strongest kind of magic comes from living as something else. Writers and actors do it all the time and never know it. In any event, if my creators hadn't done what they did, Terra wouldn't be in this situation."

The Atlantean nodded.

"Okay. I'll keep quiet about the… thing, and I'll make sure everyone else gets the message."

"Much obliged," quoth the turtle.

Upon their return, the subject turned to the enemy again.

"So what do we do now? Wait for the other Titans to get back, or…" Speedy tried.

"No. An enemy like this will want to recuperate for a while, a couple more hours, given her strength, then she'll want to feed," Kai replied.

"Feed?" Random asked," on what?"

"Well, Trigon's using thoughtforms because if he exposes his own influence too much, there's chance we can work around it. Juro and Raven can both adequately tap into Trigon's veing and use his own power against him, at least as long as he's stuck as an idea. So this mode of attack lets him act without really exposing himself. He'll try to bring himself into the material world at some point, and that's pretty much when the world will end…if he succeeds."

"Oké, maar wat gaat die meid dan nu doen?" Leonard asked.

"She doesn't have any of Trigon's essence in her, so she'll likely seek out some centre of… well, misery, and feed on it as she destroys it."

Plume raised a hand.

"Est-ce que ça veut dire qu'elle va guérir des gens? "

"No," Bumblebee replied," it means she's going to the nearest building where there re enough astral parasites to devour. Those things basically gorge themselves anyway; they only revert to ideas when they lose sustenance and turn physical when they've developed enough. She needs to pierce their own auras, to get any energy, and that means piercing an already compromised aura… that of the host. In other words, she's going someplace like a rehab clinic and slaughter every patient, or anyone who gets in the way."

"Tof," Leonard voiced.

"So the best course of action is to patrol all the negative centres in the city, especiall the ones dealing with teenagers: she'll be looking for her own frequencies. Judging from the damage you all dealt, I'd say we have about two hours before she's at fighting potential again."

Some time later…

"Kai here, everyone in position?" Kai remained in the T-Tower, centre of communications.

"Aqualad here, I've got the psych ward and rehab centre in the east."

"Bumblebee reporting, I've got the dance academy, but I doubt this is a potential target."

"Well, there are mostly girls there, and it's a likely place to find an eating disorder epidemic. We need to keep our options open. Random?"

"Random here, covering the games convention. I dunno about this, a lot of these guys seem pretty normal; no real addicts in sight."

"So much the better. Be ready to move. Speedy?"

"I'm coming up on the gospel church now. Are you sure you're not just being racist about this?"

"People: the targets involve places where teens are more vulnerable to astral infection, or places where infected people meet. So yes, that includes games centre, if there are any excessive players there, and yes, that includes the gospel church, that mainly relies on submission through exhibitory trance. Now, Belgians, where are you?"

"Nous avons pris notre position, mais j'ai une petite question : ne serait-il pas possible de détecter ces énergies en place de deviner où elles sont ? "

"Well, we can't. The things we're looking for border on ideal and material, something between shaped and shapeless. It's impossible to get a reliable detection system going."

"En wat als die Tephra ze wel kan voelen? Straks zit ze derop en kunnen we ze weer op volle kracht bevechten," Leonard queried.

"She can't, Leonard," Bee replied," she's material, and untrained. She's just as blind as we are."

"Dus wij zitten hier in een hinderlaag voor iemand die niet eens weet waar het aas is?" Leonard panicked.

"What did he say? My Dutch is terrible," Kai admitted.

"Leonard's on to something, Kai," Bee concurred," Tephra doesn't know about most of these places, does she? If Terra's never been there… even if she has, there's no way that info would go over to her. We shouldn't be staking out these places, we need to find…"

"Oh gods…" Kai realised his mistake.

The 'La Grenouille' Company has its roots in Belgium. Its Jump City outfit is a silvery skyscraper located near the centre of town, a little eastward. As a company, they're mainly specialised in communication; producing ever more wonderful add-ons for cell-phones, laptops, GPS-systems and the like. It is a respected corporation, with many people in its employ.

And somebody just blew up their front desk.

Kai was the first to get the signal.

"People, we have explosions at 'La Grenouille', centre of town. Who's closest?"

"I am, Aqualad quickly replied," I'll try and hold her for as long as I can," he added, rushing in with a tidal wave he got out of a manhole. He always remembered to clean the sewage water first, then ride it, though the stench would give him an advantage in dodging traffic.

Tephra, meanwhile, simply stood in the smouldering remains of the reception floor. A handful of security guards were clutching at their wounds, clinging to life. The explosion had caused a lot of damage, but nobody was dead…yet. According to what she'd been told in Hell, her target was up about twenty floors. She looked up at the ceiling. Might as well…

The water hit her hard, sending her sprawling towards the elevators. The last few members of staff were still evacuating, and Aqualad hoped the people on the upper floors would follow suit and get to safety.

The girl rose from the wet floor, angry vapours steaming off her body. Maybe the pain she'd suffered in the last fight had affected her personality, making her more… cold and calculating. Her eyes told of schemes and ideas, prospects of pain, and Aqualad had half a mind to give her a black eye just to get her to quit staring.

The Atlantean found himself in a bind. This building didn't have a sprinkler system, but a thrice-damned gas outlet for their fire safety. Besides that, the girl had evaporated most of the water he'd brought in. Of course, that was exactly the reason he carried two bags of water on his back. Kai had remarked on it already, but Tephra didn't know quite how subtle Aqualad's water powers had gotten.

She didn't stick around to find out, either. Rather than fight head-on, Tephra ignored the Atlantean and shot herself straight up, covering herself in a scorching missile. The boy reeled from the blast, but he quickly realised her plan: whatever power source was in the building, it had to be up. And he had to give chase.

"She's going up, you guys," Aqualad reported.

"What, on the stairs?" Speedy asked, dodging traffic on his cycle.

"No, the ceiling, actually," came the reply, as he positioned himself underneath the hole.

"Just checkin'."

Aqualad braced himself for the jump. He got out the water he carried as a back-up and let it wrap around his legs, moving his fingers in a delicate pattern he'd copied from some dumb cartoon about bald kids. He'd never actually done this before, but he'd seen it on TV, and it looked pretty easy, so he figured it should work. He built up tension in the liquid, adding more and more power to it… then he released.

Like riding a whale's waterspout, he shot up just as high as Tephra had, landing neatly on the tenth floor, give or take. As he recovered his balance in the executive office, he tried to recover some of the water that he'd spent on his jump, catching most of it in mid-air. He didn't need that much, anyway. He continued his pursuit and quickly caught up with her, or rather, she almost caught him. He ran right into a black cloud of smoke launched from behind a corner, and had just enough presence of mind to duck beneath a follow-up, even as the ashes burned his eyes. In true warrior fashion, he kept his close hand between himself and the opponent, using his far hand to reach for the water and clean his eyes. Making a waterglove was easy if you knew the trick for it. Making it into a weapon was when it got really cool. Before Tephra knew what was going on, she felt a dull thud on her forehead, like a rock, only…wetter?

She barely managed to regain her balance as she heard and felt the two snic waves coming at her. She shot up again, gaining another floor or two. Plume and Leonard came running.

"Wait, you were farthest off, how'd you get here so fast?"

The two boys looked at him gravely.  
"On est belge," Plume said," wij weten wel iets van files," Leonard added.

"Sorry I asked," even as he said it, the two led the way with their prodigious jumping abilities, leaving Aqualad to heave himself up in his own time. It was just like getting out of the pool, only heavier… harder…and twice in a row. It was times like this Aqualad considered a career as a lifeguard. He knew he would miss the heroics, but the sight of women's beach volley would definitely soften the blow.

By the time he'd reluctantly dragged himself up, Bumblebee and Random had already arrived. Random into her slower airborne form: a giant crab with bat wings. Bumblebee always said that thing looked decidedly Lovecraftian, but the rest preferred the term 'weird'.

"She's headed for the elevator," Random called, chasing after Tephra in that pseudo walk/float/fly only an alien crab can pull off. Aqualad noticed a water cooler, and decided he needed a quick refill for the next round.

Random came flying in with her clumsy claws and carapace on ramming speed, as the two Beligans tried to get a shot in. However, Tephra was faster than before, more potent, or sharper, like she was resonating with something in the building. She dodged every single blow as she casually waited for the elevator, or blocked it easily, never dropping her guard to attack. Leonard was the first to voice his suspicions.

"Ze probeert ons gewoon voorbij te komen. Ze doet niet eens haar best om te winnen!"

"Tephra blocked another blow,"Oh, ik doe wel mijn best," she replied in perfect Dutch, before shoving him away to block a claw.

"You speak Dutch?" Random asked as the lavamancer held her claw with both searing hands.

"I'm evil. What do you expect?" came the reply. Then she pushed the claw away and drove the Titans back with a low spiralling kick, blazing ash trailing from her foot.

A bell sounded, signalling the arrival of the elevator.

Tephra turned around, facing a nocked arrow.

"Hello," Speedy greeted her, before letting it loose. None of the Titans really knew how those photon arrows worked, but they did know that it was the same mechanism as Robin's disks, and that it packed a wallop. A big wallop.

Grunting at her surprise concussion, Tephra tried to stand up as the Titans East surrounded her, weapons at the ready. Tephra was feeling queasy, and her head spun. It felt like the right half of her body was doing the butterfly while the left half was going at a crawl. It was a tense moment.

And the moment shattered with a most disturbing sound. Everyone turned to look at the woman who'd just appeared out of nowhere… literally. The reason they turned was… she was clapping her hands in applause. Tephra glared at the woman.

"Miss Spectra, just the person I was looking for."

Said person was a redhead who appeared to be in her mid-twenties. She wore glasses that did nothing to hide her stunning looks and eerie aura, and a red business suit. Her hair went up at the sides, making it look like she had devil's horns. The Titans were a little confused, to say the least.

"Well," she said to Tephra, ignoring the rest," let's get started then, shall we?" then she became transparent and lunged at the lavamancer, making them both intangible and driving the pair through the floor as they grappled.

The Titans East stood flabbergasted.

"Ooo…kay, anyone know what that was about?" Speedy asked.

"Kai, we got a ghost here," Bee went on the comlink," it just went through the floor with Tephra, looked like a C.E.O."

"That's bad," Kai replied," no matter what, you have to stop them from merging. If two of those things try to take over each other…"

"Whoever comes out on top will be unstoppable," Bumblebee finished.

Just to kill the suspense, Random's Omnitrix returned her to normal.

The two landed in a dimly lit basement, form restored. Tephra thought she heard her bones breaking, and her head felt even worse when she came down on the cold hard floor.

Spectra took a fighting stance as the wounded girl got back on her feet.

"Son how did a girl like you find a creature like me? Archons got tired of me?"

Tephra wobbled a bit, then bit through the pain in her head to take some stance.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Archons and Invisibles, girl," Spectra sneered," the ultimate battle of ideas. Infinite possibilities against infinitesimal, freedom against control. How can you not know the two sides? Those heroes up there are on one side, we're on the other. And there's no way you could have known I was here if you didn't know someone in the conflict."

"Oh… that," Tephra muttered, stumbling a bit," it was this guy with an orange mask."

Spectra loosened her stance, still ready to lunge, though.

"Slade… but he's with Trigon…he's betrayed the Kings?"

"Hmm, everyone's on one side, huh? Then I guess Trigon's on the bad side. Except his idea of control involves turning people into stone and wrecking the Earth. That's his version of paradise, while yours leaves people enslaved but standing. But both are trying to do the same thing, so I guess you might say Slade… Reaper…Trigon…me…we just have to start killing our own."

Spectra glared at her. There was no way she had any power left. She was stumbling, injured and weak.

Just as the Titans came bursting through the elevator doors, Spectra flew through the air and into Tephra, knocking her to the back wall. Bumblbee saw the girl contorting as the ghost tried to consume her essence. They were too late. Bee looked at Aqualad. He gave her a curt nod.

Tephra felt the presence taking over her body, permeating her every muscle, tendon, organ. Her mind was invaded by the alien feelings of hatred and malice.  
Then, her whole body shook with a low monotone that came from inside her head. It sounded like a whale's song, or more like wailing. Her lungs and heart started to lose track of time. Her muscles burned, lactic acid piling up in the anaerobic environment her body had become.

The Atlantean. That damned Atlantean was using telepathy to attack her autonomous nervous system. The outside influence panicked in realisation and cut the bonds with its would-be victim. Spectra stumbled back towards the Titans.

"What in blazes are you? You're no apparition," Spectra exclaimed, shocked.

Tephra giggled, doubled over from her ordeal, as the Titans closed in on her and Spectra, carefully to avoid any surprises.

"No, I'm nothing like you. I'm solid, so you never really had a chance of absorbing me."

Spectra looked at the heroes behind her, a look of terror in her face.

"For Boriah's sake, don't just stand there! Take her down!"

As the Titans lunged, Tephra took an access card and ran it through the reader. Funny how you forget things like that: she'd lured in Spectra, tricked her into trying to absorb the girl, swiped her card when she became physical again, and she'd been pushed into the very door she wanted.

The Titans rushed at her. She grinned as the door opened and ran in, sending up a cloud of ash.

The Titans East emerged from the cloud into a dark room, contrasted by blue lights. The lights were stacked were like groceries in the aisles of a supermarket. Hundreds there were, each one a human-sized pod. Inside, they could see the damned: runaways, juvie delinquents, or just downright unwanted children. Boys and girls, surgically engineered to be genderless, anonymous drones with only the function that their slavers and masters gave them.

This was a tadpole farm, children's division. Each blue light was no more than a projector, sending thoughts from a program through an otherwise useless human brain to another, receiving human brain. These were the cornerstones of the nameless industrial gods that plagued the Earth. These were the mindless, lifeless though living servants of the demons that sent PG-rated corruption into the hearts and minds of children all over the world.

This very place was the enemy. This place was a horror where mutilated children were exploited like machines.

"Didn't we do this last week?" Speedy asked.

Tephra was twirling near one of the aisles, her injuries already healed. Every time she moved, another tank came alive with spasms, before stopping forever, a death after death. Speedy nocked an arrow and let it fly. Tephra caught it in a magmatic wall without even blinking. The Belgians gave her combined sonic blast, but only managed to break all the pods in its path, spilling their contents but not waking up the comatose occupants. Tephra just danced around in the newfound temple of sacrilege, riding on a high of energy.

Tephra spinned, little red globs of lava shooting out at insane speeds. Aqualad barely managed to put up a thin watery membrane as Random ran for cover, the other Titans pelted by hot but not burning stone.

Random frantically twirled at her Omnitrix. Damn Sirius Cybernetics technology never worked the way it should. Which alien could fight an ecstatic lavamancer? Neggy? No, she was too fast for that now. Migo? It didn't work five minutes ago, wouldn't work now. She banged her head in her palm, still unfamiliar with all this hero business.  
'Get over it, Random,' she thought to herself, 'get over it and think.'

She thought long and hard. The best alien to fight Tephra was…

The fight with the Titans too odd to watch, to say the least. At every move, Tephra destroyed another tadpole, taking what was left of its corrupted life energy. As the Titans laid down fire, water and fists, Tephra stood unharmed, turning the underground farm into a silent cacophony of death struggles. Her power was growing fast, and chances were even if they tried to flee Tephra would chase and kill them.

They needed a miracle.

Tephra stopped dancing, paralysed by some unseen force. Something seemed to suck the light out of the around her. The Titans got the hint. Speedy let out a freezer arrow at the dazed girl, frostbite on her skin denying her even the chance of grimacing at the impact in her gut.

"What the…" she felt her power flowing out, slowly but surely.

"Meet Lich," the darkness spoke," it's an intelligent shade of black capable of sucking your body heat 'till you're as cold as space itself."

That thrice-damned girl…she her in an etheric vicegrip.

"Give up," Random said.

Tephra had trouble breath as the cold from the arrow and cold of the darkness made her shake; it was draining heat from her skin first. If the cold got to her blood, she was done for. Still, she had an idea. Intelligent shade of black, eh? Why not find out of colours can feel pain?

Lave pourded from her every pore, heating the girl back up, and more importantly, lighting her up into a bright red. She cackled as she was released and Random's watch returned her to normal. Tephra didn't get time to finish her off, though, as the other Titans pressed their attack again. This time, Tephra's speed was off, and it wasn't long before the shots started connecting, driving her back against another pod-ridden wall in the endless farm.

Random's little trick had apparently shocked the girl out of her high. It was over. She'd taken as much energy as she could handle, and they'd snapped her right out of her power trip.

She raised her hands in surrender as the heroes formed a semi-circle around her.

"I give up. I know when I'm beaten."

The Titans were surprised for a moment, before a burst of steam erupted in front of Random, pebbles knocking her back. Aqualad was the only one who didn't break eye-contact as Random fell, hit but still not burned.

"I've seen Avatar. That trick doesn't work on me."

He went at her with his bare hands, the others in tow, but they were too slow. A cone of fire enveloped the black-haired girl, and when it cleared, Tephra was gone. The Titans picked up a shaken Random from the ground and went to miss Spectra, who was crawling towards the exit.

They neatly surrounded her as they began questioning.

"Now, what should we do with you?" Bee asked.

"I'll talk. Just tell me what you want to know and I'll talk," she was at the end of her strength.

"First question: what are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm a demon, obviously. I specialise in adolescents. I used to work schools as a counsellor, but this is more profitable, you see. Kids disappear, get processed, and then they become transmitters."

"Then what exactly are you broadcasting?" Aqualad asked.

"Thoughtforms, nightmares… the surgeon fish of the Nether Side. Every body in there is a factory for lower ghosts. Or was, at least, with the quarantine broken they're all useless now. Brains non-functional, you see."

"And what about Tephra? What do you know about her?"

"She's complete now, fully solid. She can't be banished with a simple spell any more. Neither can I, mind you, but she's got a body that's rooted in the material world. She works for Trigon, but you knew that. And Slade, well… he's on the same side, but a different division. From corruption and deception to destruction."

"What do you mean by that?" Bee asked.

"Heh, Slade's still on our side. You think the Invisibles conflict has a limit? Everyone and everything fits in one plce or the other. Trigon's a contingency plan: if all else fails, blow up the world. Even the damage done here will repay itself once Trgion gets through. Collateral damage and all that."

"You hearing this, Kai?" Bee asked on the com.

"Every word. Looks like this is bigger than even we knew."

"Which of course brings us back to the original question: what do we do with you now?" Bumblebee half-threatened.

Spectra lay there, spent by her failed absorption.

"What are you gonna do, kill me? You think I'd talk if I didn't know I was protected from you? I'm already a ghost and you can't lock me up. There's no jail you have that they can't break me out of. I'm on the chain, kids, and there things in place to keep me there."

"Oh, we know," Bubmblebee replied," see, I used to have a white badge myself, so I know how to deal with the likes of you. Aqualad?"

The whale's call sounded in Spectra's head, blotting out her sense of time. They must be really desperate if they're trying the same trick as they did with… whatshername…

'Oh damn,' was the last thought that went through her before she reverted to being a non-sentient idea. Funny thing about the Archons, or any other conspiracy, for that matter: they never think outside the box. Take Spectra, for example: she was made of thought and emotion, but not in a fully physical form. That meant she could fly through walls, temporarily possess people, and feed on certain high frequencies of energy. It also meant she could monitor the now dead tadpole farm without going mad with exposure. She was protected against most conventional modes of attack. However, she was very vulnerable to telepathy.

Usually, in order to kill, a telepath needs to attack the autonomous nervous system and shut down a few bodily functions, like heartbeat or breath. But for creatures who weren't fully solid, a more subtle approach was in order. Being without the weakness of a respiratory or cardiovascular system, the best bet was to get into their very essence and make their energy vibrate on a different level, thereby denying them their foothold in the physical realm, taking away their sentience, and rendering them no more dangerous than any other idea. It was a fairly clean way of dealing with Spectra and the like.

"Say hi to Quimper for me when you see him," Bee taunted before Spectra disappeared entirely.

The Titans East left the dead tadpole farm to the police to clean up as much as they could (it was a conspiracy, after all) and went back home after getting the okay and good work from Kai.

"So now Robin and the gang need to deal with Tephra too, huh?" Speedy asked on the way.

"Yep. That one'll be handful," Aqualad reply."

"I'm more worried about Terra," Random added," are they really doing the right thing? I mean, if those two ever go head-to-head…"

"Terra sera déjà prëte si ça se passe, " the Walloon replied, " et elle aura des amis pour l'aider, enfin, je suppose. »

"Tja, je weet nooit hoe ze zal reageren eens ze weer zichzelf is," the Flemish boy said," voor hetzelfde geld legt ze alles in puin."

"Nah, I don't think, so,' Speedy added," I think if she sees why they did that, she'll understand everything. It's facing her own memories that'll be a problem."

"Yeah," Aqualad replied," having to fight a part of yourself must be rough."

Bumblebee swallowed hard, repressing some latent memory.

"If Tephra and Terra ever do fight… you're forgetting just one thing."

Silence fell.

"Tephra's a separate entity now, not just memories with energy thrown in. It's never that simple: she can think, she has moves Terra could never have know. Terra wouldn't be fighting a part of herself."

Bumblebee adjusted her steering as silence returned.

"She'd be fighting yet another supervillain, and that's all."

"_I don't give a rat's ass about your ash-collecting, you cannot roll another D-20 to save yourself just 'coz you keep dying!" Tim Hunter, a.k.a. Malorik, Dungeon Master, to Johnny, a.k.a. Weidar. _

End of chapter 26

* * *

Okay, the reason I've been so long...summer exams. Very...very...bummed out about that. But on the bright side, my first semester now opens up a lot of free time. If I have to force myself to keep writing, I will, because this fic has changed my life, and I won't quit it. Okay, maybe that was exaggerating a bit, but still...no quitting this! Also, about the chapter, it was necessary, even if it wasn't as good. I've introduced the Invisibles conflict numerous times already, I've mentioned Bee's involvement in it, all that needed to be fleshed out more. And as for the Belgians... I don't speak Spanish. Period. And to get the same feel as with the Spaniards, I decided to use Dutch and French. Also note I didn't proofread this chappie as much as I'd liked to, mostly because of time constraints. I wanted it up as soon as possible. So now it is, review!


	27. Planetary Issues

A/N: Don't even say it, I know. Too dreadfully long since last update. I'm beyond commenting on it right now. On the bright side; I can now do all of my work ffrom the laptop, which is permanently acessible, but there's a ton of stuff that needs doing as well. The stories are still being written, they will, at some point in time barring my death, be finished. In the meantime, here's another chappie for y'all. It's based on a plot from Pokémon, but not the one you'd expect. I'm also varying my layout a little in certain bits of the text, hope it looks okay.

Chapter 27: Planetary Issues.

"Space travel is so dreary,"Raven half-moaned in the parked T-ship," I never get the hang of it."  
"What's there to dislike?" Juro asked," it's dark, peaceful, it's beautiful."  
"You mean like me?" Raven quipped," I'm pretty sure you can't make a snug fit with your body and the vastness of space, even with your talents."  
When Cyborg realised what Raven had just suggested, he quickly changed the subject.  
"So, Juro...bet this is your first trip into deep space, huh? Not too excited?"  
"Well, considering my little romps through continuity, space and time, which hurled me a million lightyears further than where we are," Juro took a breath," in directions we can't even point to, let alone fly towards," he took another breath," and the trips I've made into other Universes before that, including real and imaginary ones," he let another pause fall," I think I'll be able to restrain myself. "  
Nobody saw or heard it in the segmented spaceship, but Raven grinned and replied:" And if you don't, then I will."  
"Is Starfire nearly done? I'd like to get the ion engines to full throttle again, now that they've cooled," Robin said.  
"Err, I think she's done by now," Beast Boy answered as the alien girl came flying back with a few satellites in tow.  
"Starfire!" Robin shouted," those are first contact satellites! They're supposed to give an introduction of humanity to alien intelligences."  
"I know, Robin, that is why I'm taking them. I am an alien, of an intelligent disposition. Don't you agree?" she talked more like an Earthling on purpose.  
"You know that's not the issue," Robin argued.  
"Trust me, Starfire, you don't want those things," Raven added," all they ever put in first-contact satellites is anatomically correct nude pictures and Beatles songs."  
"Strange custom, I find. My people never thought to send our Sarnite Cockroaches' romance shrieks into space, and our pornography is usually hidden near our beds, or at least within the planet's orbit," the tanned alien put up her most inoocent voice possible.

One thing about space-grade plexiglass is: if you're standing outside, you can never tell the difference between embarrassed blushing and furious fuming. Robin was doing one of the two, and his body language seemed to indicate a resonating intermediate between the two emotions.  
"Can we just get going now, please?" he pleaded.  
"But I merely wanted some music to listen to, Robin, you said I could," Starfire begged cutely.  
"Fine, get the CD out of one the things, and we'll burn a copy," he admitted," I'm pretty sure copyrights are void when you're past Pluto."  
Starfire gleefully did just that, picking out a machine with a red spot on it and hijacking its musical contents. Naturally, when the copy was made, she put the CD back and sent the satellite on its due course. It should be noted that the satellite in question did find some alien intelligence, but the aliens in question never tried to determine where the thing had come from. The reason was simple: it had landed on a planet governed by giant insects, and while they did recognise Earthlings' taste in music, naturalism was slightly frowned upon, or rather greeted with a rasping in the forehead region.  
"Ion engines warming up," Cyborg announced.

"Great, now we can listen to the Beatles on our way," Raven mused.  
"Actually, that thing had a Japanese flag on it,"Juro replied,"Hey Star, what's that music called?" Starfire checked her screen, but she couldn't make out the signs. Luckily BB was a manga nut and could read Japanese quite fluently.  
The sound of crickets came through the speakers as Beast Boy read the artist and title.  
"Geinoh Yamashirogumi," he said, interrupted by the sound of two bells ringing.  
"Ecophony Gaia," Raven said to no one in particular," Juro wrote a sigil to get it a few days ago. Congrats, Juro, sigil succesful."  
"Ah yes, the Universe's slappy sense of humour. I wanted to hear the music that captures life on Earth, and I had to go into outer space to get it," Juro admired the sounds of the gamelan bells and the percussion began to form an entropically perfect rhythm," kinda says a lot about my taste, doesn't it?"  
"And what do you call this part, friend Juro?" Starfire asked as the engines finished warming up.  
"Part one of the composition represents the primal dawn of life itself," Juro replied as he watched Raven smile in her pod," the very beginning of all life."

The shift to full throttle came gently, lulled by the entrancing music.

"Ecophony Gaia, part one: Chaos."

Thirteen minutes into the CD, and three continents had been spanned in terms of musical styles. The Titans arrived at their destination: the new and for now unoccupied space base.

"So I'm assuming we just dock it and go in?" Raven asked.  
"Yep," Robin replied," everybody get ready."

Getting in was easy enough: the docking bay was large enough to hold a shuttle, and it was completely empty. After confirming the area was pressurised, the Titans got out of their car and went on with their mission. It was too dark to see anything, though, even with Cyborg's built-in headlights. "Okay, Starfire, we need to find a lightswitch," Robin said to some air passing by. It didn't reply and blatantly refused to switch on the lights. "Starfire?" Robin asked again, now really noticing her absence.

The lights came on.  
"I hope you don't mind, dear Robin, I came early," Starfire smirked. The girls were really on a roll with her double entendres today.  
"Right, let's go find the control room then," came the reply.

The huge satellite was abandoned and as such, uncannily silent. The Titans could hear every single footstep echoing endlessly through the space-program approved corridors, every little woosh from flying past becoming an endless whisper as they wandered around.  
"Couldn't we put on some music in here?" Juro completely ruined the atmosphere, the way only oafs, knaves and chaotes seem to master.  
"I have found the bridge!" Starfire's voice rocked through the place, making it ring like crazy.  
Juro rubbed his ears.  
"Do all space stations have this kind of accoustic? I feel like I'm in a Buddhist temple."  
"Come along, Juro," Raven flew by," mission now, desecrations later."  
Beast Boy came round a corner, evidently he'd heard the remark, because his jaw was stuck on 'stunned'.  
"Dude, did she just...have you...," he stammered.  
"Not yet, but I think being in the void of space may have made her a bit...anxious for it."  
The two walked.  
"Dude...I never thought she could even feel that way."  
"Well, she controls her emotions, but she's still human, and female. Us guys get a similar thing, except it's mostly in the morning. Mother Nature takes no prisoners, but she takes plenty of hostages."

The conversation stopped when they reached the bridge.  
"Remind me again what this stuff is for?" Beast Boy asked.  
"Space program wanted to send their tech ahead, get autonomated recon online, then send a human expedition. That's why there's oxygen, and room for people," Cyborg replied.  
"Uh huh...then why are all the computers smashed up?" came the ominous question.

The bridge was in shambles. Screens were shattered, wires were spilled around haphazardly, the technical intestines of the ship had been torn to shreds by an unknown beast of unimaginable ferocity. Or mice; mice can be a problem, too.  
"Something trashed this place," Robin stated the obvious, a dirty job but a necessary part of leadership," Cyborg, did you check for lifesigns?"  
"I did," the metal man answered," but that doesn't mean we're alone."  
"What? You can't detect zombie aliens?" Raven joked in her patented fashion.  
"Uh, yeah, kinda. Lifesigns only come from processes in actual living things, bio-electricity, gravity. You need to have a system based on chemical reactions to be detected. Point is: I can't detect stuff that doesn't breathe. If it can survive in outer space without having to hold its breath, I can't find it," he explained.  
"Perfect horror movie logic," Raven mused.  
"Well, if you've got something better," Cyborg started, but he trailed off when he saw Raven's eyes.  
"Rechem, Byakko, Eres..." she cast her spell, making her eyes glow white, a few wrinkles even appeared on her face, indicating power rather than age.  
"There. I can see all the power lines that are still working, us,...doesn't seem to be anything else around," even as Raven said it, Robin froze. "Above us!" the Boy Wonder shouted, sending the Titans scattering as the beast came down.

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about the Torpid Deepthroat Demon of Traal:  
"First off, whoever named it was sick but correct; that thing does have a throat that goes deep within its body. Lots of people on Traal learn to fear the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast, but the Deepthroat Demon is what you really need to be scared of. For one thing, it shoots off waves of pure sound from that throat, and it doesn't even need air to do it. How, most people don't really care, as the question is moot when your insides are mush. The biggest problem with the Demon, however, is that it is torpid. It is capable of staying very still, so still that it numbs its nervous system and basically evades all known forms of detection.

Unless, of course, you just happen to look around really, really carefully."

The Titans had dispersed before the thing had the ground. It took in its surroundings in a quick spin, then lunged at Cyborg, who no doubt smelled just like the technical equipment it had devoured. Of course, unlike the defenseless spaceship, Cyborg had sonic guns, which he promptly discharged at the thing. The blast sent it careening into the already smashed control panel, but the thing wasn't fazed at all. Apparently, stuff that can survive in outer space can be pretty tough in inner space, too. The Demon got up and leered at the Titans, who were slowly forming up again.  
"Starfire, get down!" Robin called out, tackling the alien girl out of harm's way as a sonic boom from the thing's throat streaked past them. Starfire hadn't even noticed the beast's attack. Robin's reflexes were faster than usual. Of course, that bit of info paled compared to the fact that Robin now found himself on top of her, a very compromising position.  
"You saved me," the alien princess gasped.  
"Don't mention it," he replied.  
Meanwhile, Raven had put up a black shield to hold the outer space beast at bay, not an easy trick considering its cosmic-grade A claws and strength to use them.  
"Hey, if you two lovebirds are done, we need to get out of here," Cyborg recapped their situation.  
"We are not lovebirds," Robin said gruffly, oblivious to the dagger he'd just slammed through Star's heart. She got up, shaking from nothing but the impact of what she'd heard.  
"Guys, I can't hold this thing for much longer," Raven warned as the Demon prepared its sonic attack again.  
"Right. Nobody panic; we'll get through this if we just stick together."

TTTTTTT

Ten minutes later...  
With the T-Car separated, crashed on an alien planet, and all the Titans scattered to the four corners of...wherever they were, Robin couldn't help but think there'd been a problem in communication. He got out of his pod and took in the battered landscape. Withered trees, black rocks and the occasional decorative geyser...yep, he'd landed right in the middle of a horror movie set.  
"Perfect. All this place needs is a mowaa..!" his loud pondering was interrupted by the monster that came with the place. He didn't bother trying to register the thing's characteristics, like weight or colour, because the thing had already pinned him down and was trying to get its sharp teeth past that annoying bo staff he'd managed to put up. When a monster's teeth are blocking your view, you tend to ignore its other features.

Just as he was about to lay the smack down on this creature, an arrow came flying out of nowhere, piercing the thing's hide and burying itself in the side of its chest. Robin shoved it off him, and its reluctance to protest led him to believe it was dead. 'Well, so much for horror movie logic,' he thought, glancing around to see who'd saved his life. He half-expected to see some hot space amazon standing there, so he wasn't too surprised to find Starfire holding the bow. He was, however, startled by what she said.

"We need to talk."

Never a good sign.

TTTTTTT

Beast Boy woke up next to his wrecked pod. A quick survey of the area told him he'd crashed on an alien planet. He wasn't quite sure how it had happened; all he knew was the big thing had managed to tag along on their ship, and then they'd separated. He felt alone, extremely alone. Communication was down, and his human brain had trouble keeping his mammal brain from panicking. The other Titans weren't aware of this, but human beings actually have three kinds of brains, each one an addition of evolution. The oldest was in charge of base emotions like anger and hatred, and was a reptilian brain. In hostile environments anger, hate and fear are useful emotions, so that part had never been removed by Mother Nature. Second was the mammalian brain, endowing creatures with fully developed emotions needed for pack hunting and the formation of large families. Last was the primate brain, the only true human part, centre of reason.  
Now BB, being an animal shapeshifter, retained his human brain in every form, but his other two were stronger than those of a human's. Every human has at least one snake and one wolf in their mind, and for Beast Boy, those things were awfully big. It was difficult for him to react rationally, simply because his brain couldn't fight the multitude of beasts in his mind that told him to be scared out of his wits. That is why it didn't occur to him to turn into a dog and sniff the team out, or a bird to scan the area. He simply ran before something became aware of his presence and his low position in the food chain, the price one pays for being a vegetarian. One can imagine BB's relief, then, when he stumbled over Cyborg's head. The familiarity of the face calmed him down, right before its lack of body sent him screaming like a girl.  
Cyborg grimaced at the high-pitched noise.  
"Will you relax?" the head said," it's not like I've never been in pieces before."  
Realising that his friend was here (in part), Beast Boy became himself again.  
"Cyborg, what happened to you?" he asked.  
"I bobbed when I should've weaved. Could you pick me up, please? I think my chest is right behind you."  
Indeed it was, but as the green teen was about to put the head back on, a thought came to him.  
"Uh, Cyborg? How can you even talk? Your lungs are detached."  
"Err...good question."

TTTTTTT

"Okay," Juro recapped the situation," so we're stranded on an alien planet..."  
"We're stuck up a mile-high treeline," Raven continued, "We could find our friends, but not our transports, seeing as those are below us, and a spell would take too much time to invent." "But to top it all off..."the chaote summed it up further.  
"We're surrounded by little pink balls of fuzz who are obsessed with something called 'Shala'," Raven finished.  
"Obsessed! Shala!" yelled the swarm of strange creatures.  
"Okay, I say we get out of here, find Cyborg and let him deal with the technical side of things," Juro offered.  
"Agreed," came the reply.  
"Wait! Kind strangers, please wait," another pink furball emerged from the crowd, evidently some kind of village elder with a beard and staff. The pair immediately smelled trouble when they were addressed as 'kind strangers', since that usually meant some kind of favour was expected of them.  
"Praise be! Two heroes have come to deliver us from our peril," the elder called out to no one in particular.  
"Peril! Shala!" the rest added.  
"Look, we're in kind of a pickle ourselves, so if it can wait..." Juro tried.  
"No, it cannot. Our planet is at risk and our most holy treasures are about to be stolen to serve as trophies," came the reply.  
"Let me guess: your Babel fish?" Raven stated/asked.  
"No, a far greater threat looms over us. I saw the ships; there are more of you. If you do not assist, the very planet may begin to dissolve under our feet, and in short time, as well."  
Raven and Juro glanced at each other. The Universe showed its slappy sense of humour once again.  
"Okay, what do you need from us?" the two groaned.

TTTTTTT

Robin and Starfire were trudging through the volcanic plains, trying to set each other's record straight.

"I thought that you cared for me, Robin," Star started.

"Starfire, we're stranded on an alien planet, trying to avoid boiling lava under the ground. I don't think now's a good time to have this conversation," Robin gruffly answered.  
"My biology can resist temperatures far beyond any melting rock, and you are wearing neo-titanium on your body. You also carry disks with sub-zero vacuum energy. We have nothing to fear," the Tamaranean seemed to dare the writer of their life story to come up with some random perilous situation to be plunged in at a moment's notice.

Said writer did not accept the invitation, and they both just stopped at the same time.  
"All right, then. If you want to know right now... I can't say whether I care or not. The reason we'e been on-again, off-again is because I don't know whoI am. I keep finding new reasons to doubt myself. I'm a guy, emotions don't come naturally to begin with. But as if that's not bad enough, my identity seems to change every few days. I feel like I'm at least three different people all the time, and and they all see you differently."

Silence fell.

"I don't know who I am behind the mask. My mask is the only thing I'm really sure of. So there, I said it. I'm morbidly schizophrenic, caught between continuities," Robin spilled his guts.  
"So that is it, then? You simply doubt the nature of your existence? You make me feel this pain for something as trivial as the meaning of life?" Star made it sound as casual as she could.  
"Easy for you to say," Robin quipped," you know who you are. You're a Tamaranean princess, drop dead gorgeous, and strong as an elephant."

The girl blushed.  
"Stronger, actually, and not all the time. You hurt me, Robin, when you say things carelessly."

_'Look, Terra, I know you can't fully control your powers.'_  
_'You say you want to be a man, Cyborg, you're just proving that you're a spoiled child.'_  
_'If you want to act like a jerk, BB, do it somewhere else.'_  
A lot of things that actually sounded worse in hindsight rang in the boy's head.

"It seems to be a trend," Robin admitted.  
"But if the boy behind the mask doesn't know who he loves, what of the boy in the mask? To me, you have always been Robin, and no one else."

Robin tried to get a grip on the situation, but his vision of the Comic-Con kept returning. He kept wondering who was making all this stuff up, who controlled his every action, thought and emotion.

In short, dear reader, he wondered how many RobStar shippers there were, though the answer would have surely crushed what little sanity the author had given him to work with.

And, as was mandatory when Robin came close to a psychological breakthrough, the author decided to throw in some random violence.

One must keep one's audience entertained, after all, no matter how small it might be.

An eruption of flame came over the two Titans, and while both had plenty of experience in terms of explosions (both dealing and taking them), this one almost felt like a first. Explosions are supposed to knock you out or carry you like a wave, and they have a very distinctive sound quality to them. First a bang, then some ringing, then silence, depending on inner ear damage. In fact, if Raven hadn't mastered basic healing techniques, the entire Titans squad would have gone deaf ages ago. This explosion, though, was unique in both its action and sound. This particular explosion whipped over them from above, with an unprecedented Doppler effect. When they got back to their feet, Starfire and Robin could see the explosion flying off in the distance. Now, most people don't know what a flying explosion looks like, but the Teen titans, if nothing else, have been around the proverbial block and beyond.

So it should come as no surprise to hear the first thought that went through them as they saw, for the second time now, a bird made entirely of fire.

"Not again."

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy describes Anoat 3 as such:  
"It's in the middle of nowhere, but very scenic. The whole planet is actually formed of three great streams of matter, presumably hobbled together some short time after the Big Bang and held together by gravity, as well as one very improbable substance which, by all accounts, should have congealed into a black hole ages ago. Efforts to examine the planet have so far failed for two reasons. For one thing, it is impossible to mine the planet's surface, as most of it is actually in motion all the time. The second reason, and the one that's caused the greatest number of casualties, is that the planet is actually guarded. Sure, you might think it's just another green paradise, great place to build a space-base, but when you see the birds, you will change your mind. Four very large birds have been identified, each associated with one of the matter flows of the planet. Nobody's quite sure how evolution managed to come up with them, but there they are. Each bird has its own nest, and tends to stick to one area of the planet. So if you happen to find yourself stranded on an alien planet, and notice you're walking along a volcanic plain, an ice desert, or a field swarmed by statically charged metallic plants, you would be wise to hoof it sharpish."

The section used to contain a small addendum regarding the fourth bird that supposedly survived inside the gravity matter, and the suspected relationships between the birds, but it was deleted after a bribe by some games designer who later settled on Earth. Nobody really knows why he'd paid that bribe; the whole story was too boring to base a movie on it, let alone a video game.

"Well, looks like the wildlife here is pretty dangerous," Robin once again performed the dirty task of stating the obvious," we'd better find the others."  
"Should we not try to repair our own respective pods?" the princess asked.  
"Unless Cyborg's explained his space tech to you, I don't think we can do anything about it," came the reply.  
"So where do we go, then?"  
"Off this melting terrain, before that thing decides to come back," the Boy wonder replied.

"Robin?" she stopped him as he walked off.

"Yeah?"

"It is normal to have doubts. But for X'Hal's sake, do not let them control you."

Robin smiled at the attempted comfort.

TTTTTTT

Meanwhile, Cyborg was feeling like he had to explain state-of-the-art technoglogy to a total noob, which wasn't surprising, as that's exactly what he was doing.  
"Okay, now put the thing shaped like a slice of pizza into the circuit board," he tried to sound calm, but the effect was lost due to the fact that apart from his head and chest, he was without a body.  
As far as either of them knew, Cy's pieces were scattered all over the planet. One needs to grasp some psychological background to fully understand the severity of the problem. Here were two young men, stuck, alone. Both of them had girlfriends, or something that could pass for one. One was a technical genius and a former jock, the other was a lanky teen whose voice had a pixie-like quality to it. Said teen also spent an unusual amount of his time in bodies that didn't even have opposable thumbs. Heck, when he turned into a snake, Beast Boy didn't even have legs. Suffice to say that the two, unlike their coupled companions, did not spend much of their time with small talk. Cyborg didn't even complain about his head being stuck on backwards, and left that problem to his reactivated neck joints. Beast Boy, meanwhile, tried his level best to follow Cy's directions, even though what he really wanted to do was turn into a jaguar and bolt. The whole thing was compounded by the fact that the residential technician never allowed the green teen to touch his stuff, not even with a twelve-foot pole. He'd tried it once; the pole knocked over a can of oil and Cyborg got the whole contents in his mouth. It didn't make him sick, but swallowing food became an unnaturally quick ritual.

The two were in an awkward situation, and they kept quiet. All in all, they both wished it was over and done with. As he worked the mechanics of the ship, Beast Boy found one thought returning time and time again.

"I hope the others are doing better than we are."

TTTTTTT

Raven and Juro were on the move, hoping to intersect their target before the planet exploded. Raven was flying through the forest canopy while Juro made little slips through reality, ignoring rules of space and time to save him the trouble of jumping.

"So let me get this straight," Raven started," this guy s hunting the birds that supposedly hold this planet in one piece."  
"That's right," Juro said between wops. The undergrowth lessened, a chill breeze came.  
"Funny how we managed to land on a planet with just the right atmosphere, at exactly the time when this kind of thing would happen," the witch remarked.  
"Gosh, you're right," Juro replied," it's almost like there's something...chaotic at work."

They both stopped, because that's what the tropical landscape did.  
"Now there's something you don't see every day," Raven stated as the cold started creeping through her black leotard. She pulled her cape close as she gazed over the icy desert that seemed to merge seamlessly with the tropical rainforest they'd just left. That is to say, there was nothing between the transition from one to the other. They both just melded into one another.  
"Huh", the chaote said," I was kind of expecting this from a theme park or something," he looked at the line of snow and rainforest.  
"Next thing you know there's a lion riding an elephant taking potshots at us," Raven added. Of course, in another twist of horror movie logic, that's exactly what happened. The two heroes dodged an energy blast that blew the foliage off the tree they were in, and both dived down toward their assailant, Juro in one big leap, Raven taking a slower glide. She tried her best not to shiver, but it wasn't an easy trick to pull off with such a skimpy outfit.

Oddly, this was the first time she found her costume was an issue. Except for that time in an Amish village, but that's a different story.

"Well, well, what have we here?" the shooter asked no one in particular. On close inspection, it turned out to be a half-man, half-lion hybrid, with some random Australian influences thrown in. His hat was a throwback from a certain famous Earth crocodile hunter, his shirt was only slightly lighter than his fur, and his mount was a black-eyed elephant with its tusks stuck in backwards.  
"Didn't think there were welps on this planet," the hunter mocked.  
"We're not welps, we're the Teen Titans, well, some of them," Juro replied," and you are?"  
"I am Huntor, the greatest hunter in the Universe. I have every dangerous animal on my wall as a trophy. That is, except for one stupid monkey and some guy in pajamas."  
"Wait, you're a trophy hunter? Looking for dangerous kills?" Raven asked, looking away from the elephant thing. She thought it was kinda cute; the backward tusks definitely added to the cuddle factor.  
"That's right," the lion man replied, proudly shaking some frost off his beard," I even have this frosty little bird to add to my list of conquests."  
Huntor showed them a containment unit barely small enough to fit in his palm, but it obviously served as a very uncomfortable for the large blue bird inside. Even unconscious it looked sad.

"Great, he's got one of them," Raven stated the obvious.  
"Oh yes, and it is said that when fire, ice and lightning meet, the greatest prey of all shall appear and..."  
"Fight to restore balance to the planet or die trying, resurrect when some melody is played, yadda yadda yadda," Juro interrupted," I saw the damn sequel. Better than the first one, still too old-Aeon for me. Now the third one had a good story, but it was messed up by the context. That could have been a lot better."  
(A/N: if you do not know what I am talking about, count yourself lucky. If you want to know how big of a deal this is for me; let's just say I keep certain videos to induce a trance of disgust, and I do not need an R-rating to get disgusted with stuff like this lying about)

Huntor blinked once, then twice.

"What?"he asked, completely oblivious to Earth media and pop culture.  
Raven held up her hands in a sign of negotiation.  
"Okay, look, you're part lion, you're a hunter, I can understand that, but I'm gonna have to ask you to let that...thing go and leave."

Huntor dug up his gun again and promptly aimed it at the two teens. Neither was really impressed; making a career as a superhero in America usually meant you ignore any guns that don't have a) magic bullets, b) some kind of seeking and/or shield-breaking capacity or c) barrels longer than the wielder's body. Huntor was clearly packing none of these, as he only took out option c) to impress the ladies. Not that it ever worked; most of the time they thought he was compensating for something.  
"Listen," Huntor carefully explained," I'm a trophy hunter, kids. I hunt trophies. I don't wanna shoot you, but I will. Hells, I don't even need to shoot you. Little Betsy here," he patted his elephant," could just run straight over you, no sweat."

"Point taken," Raven replied," but I get the idea you're not thinking this through. I mean... Juro, back me up here," the girl was rubbing furiously against her leotard.  
"She's right, you know. What good is it to be an intergalactic trophy hunter? Does it make you any happier?"

Huntor was shocked.  
"Happy? Happy? Who cares about being happy when you're famous?"

"I've never heard of you, so I'm guessing you're not that famous," Raven quipped," if the Universe is infinitely large, and only a finite number of civilised planets know of your existence, then being famous on a universal scale is impossible."

"But I am known in fifteen galaxies! People cheer for me when I add another head to my wall," the lion argued.

Raven just blew in her hands and kept up her mental barrage.  
"Sure, some of them; the ones who wish they were like you, enjoying adventure and carnage. The vast majority of those either grow out of you or become criminals when they try to re-enact your hunts. If you showed up on our planet, you'd be buried in lawyers, environmentalists, and anti-gun lobbyists before you can even step on a daffodil. That's assuming they let you land; there are people in charge on our planet who have no trouble with keeping you stuck in orbit while you get prosecuted from one Pole to the other. I'm pretty sure that's true on a larger scale, too."

Juro stared at the girl. She'd cheered up a lot since he'd joined the team, but this depressing bombardment of words gave him a glimpse of what kind of horrors lurked in the dark corners of her mind. She was wrong, of course; if someone like Huntor landed in Europe, say... Brussels, he'd be able to wipe out five zoos, three natural reserves and one petting zoo without any legal trouble. If he dared insult a foreigner, though, the Law would pounce upon him in a manner that best resembles the finer predators of the Cretaceous period.

Such is the Way of the Belgian.

"Oh come on, I'm a lion, for pity's sake. I'm supposed to hunt, aren't I?" the feline had already deposited his weapon.

Now Juro added to the conversation.  
"Actually, following that logic, I think you're supposed sleep all day, let your wife do the hunting and nibble your nuts from time to time," the chaoist recalled from a certain nature documentary, then thought of something else," you're not doing this out of some childhood issues, are you?"

"Hey, my private life's private, okay?" the anthro did not react well to that.

"Not if you're a celebrity, it's not, and you just said..." Raven tried.

"I know what I zarking said!" Huntor lashed out, grabbing his gun again," can't we just fight and get this over with?"

"Wait just a second," Raven tried," if you're a hunter and you're really that famous, there's gotta be some set of rules you need to obey. There must be laws that bind you, right? You can't just go shooting whoever you please."

"If it's in my way and it doesn't have diplomatic ties, I can shoot it," Huntor threatened.

"Oh, why didn't you say so?" Juro said with a flourish," we're friends with the Tamaranean princess. The red-haired one, not the fugitive."

The toned lion put his gun down in frustration.  
"Aww, cripes, can't you just knock me out? This is getting ridiculous!"

"As a matter of fact, we're stranded on this planet and we were hoping to find our friends, but these furballs asked us to stop you from wrecking this planet. We really don't want to fight you right now," Raven pleaded, still fighting the cold creeping up.

"Then what's to stop me from running right past you?" came the obvious question.

"I guess you could get past us, but what then?" Juro asked.

"People won't remember you, not on a galactic scale," Raven added," your trophies will eventually end up in some museum and the only time someone mentions your name will be when a bunch of uninterested kids are listening to a tour guide. No amount of trophies will stop you from aging; either you'll die fighting some beast stronger than you, or you'll be forced to retire and then your death will be just a little snippet in the eight o' clock news. Even the most famous dead people on our planet didn't last more than a week as headlines."

Huntor glanced at the boy, taking in the girl's statement.  
"Is she always this depressing?"  
-"No, she's on really on a roll today."

"Listen, we have to deal with weirdos like you on a daily basis. Usually they have some sort of scheme to make everyone's life miserable, except their own. They tend to justify themselves out of some moral argument that it's their right to make people miserable because it's been done to them. Most of the time, we just can't reason with them, so we wind up settling this moral debate by beating them into the ground," Raven explained.  
"That's how everyone settles their differences in our Universe, now that I think about it," Juro thought aloud.  
"But just once could it turn out some other way? I'm asking you, one sentient being to another, could you please not force us to use force? Or do you really want to act like you're happy with things?" Raven shivered from tip toe, and she made a mental note to rehearse her wardrobe spells again, starting with her collection of undead wool summons.  
(A/N: Yes, that's a Yosemite Sam quote in there, and yes I thought it was rather appropriate)

"That's easy for you to say: you don't have any trouble meeting new people; you're not a furry," Huntor pulled the racial thing on them.

"In case you hadn't noticed, the crystal lodged in my skull tends to put people off a little. Ask him," she pointed at Juro," I can't even kiss him without nearly gouging his forehead."

"You should see my X-rays," the chaote replied.

"Okay, it's not easy for anyone, but put yourself in my place: you heroes come barging in and questioning my way of life, and you don't even offer any help. Why should I listen to any of this drek if I'm left in the dark afterward?"

"Oh come on, have a heart," Juro tried to suade him.

"I had one for breakfast, thank you," came the reply.

"Wait, hang on, did you just say you're being discriminated against because you're a furry? That's why you hunt?" Raven barely managed to put her finger up, she really wished they could discuss this on a more tropical location, like five yards behind them.

"They keep pulling hygiene crap on me. Come on, I'm a cat! That's like...the most sanitary animal there is!" Huntor cried out.

"Uh, Raven, what are you doing? We can't keep stalling him like this; his fur's too thick for hypothermia," Juro leaned in a little closer.

"Relax. I have an idea," quoth the Raven. "Hey, how about we cut you a deal? You quit hunting and help us get off this rock, and we get you a job that pays well and suits you."

"Oh, I doubt you can do that. I've tried lots of planets already and besides that, I'm only good with animals. Desk jobs aren't really my style. Shedding and all that...not pretty when you're wearing a suit."

"Not to worry, I know one place where lion furries are welcome, and they're always running out of zookeepers."

Huntor cocked an eyebrow at that statement. Juro leaned in for a question. "And you know this...how?"

Raven smiled and gave him four words, the same four words that nearly damned their friends' relationship, four little words that she'd heard when she'd switched bodies with Starfire. "Tamaraneans descend from cats."

TTTTTTT

"Okay, maybe the field of magma was safer," Robin tried to find some cheerful note to the situation, but when you're doing your level best not to get torn apart by sonic waves, it's hard to keep a positive outlook.  
The Deepthroat Beast of Traal that had attacked the Titans on the spaceship had apparently survived its fall to the planet (living up to horror movie logic, as could be expected) and jumped Robin and Starfire just as they were about to conclude their latest romantic debacle. If Robin didn't know any better, he'd have sworn that some celestial, all-governing (and no doubt dashingly handsome) overbeing was trying to stop them from having a simple romantic experience. It was almost as if some god wanted to postpone their lovelife, presumably just for the heck of it, but if his experience at the otherdimensional Comic-con was any indication, because of some inane plot device.

Another scream came over the rock they were using as cover. It wasn't so much a problem of not being able to attack, the issue was one of sacrifices. At full volume, only a physical barrier could stop the devastating sound waves from doing any damage. Leaving their cover would imply that one full-powered blow could rend their body apart. Of course, with their trained reflexes the worst that they'd actually get was a grazing hit. That would leave them either deaf or suffering from brain damage (through a mechanism Robin had found in one of BB's questionable mangas). There was always, of course, the option of simply throwing things wildly, but that had its own problems. For one thing, they had a very poor angle of attack from their position. For another, the thing they were fighting was mobile enough to dodge whatever came at it. Their last option had actually been Robin's initial reflex: tossing a flash grenade.

They had a better chance of fighting the Beast if it was blinded, so naturally Robin had indeed tried to blind it, only to find that evolution had beaten him to it. The thing just didn't have any eyes. So there they were, contemplating their existence with the calm that only a certain death can induce, when all of a sudden the waves stopped coming. Of course, they were relieved, but a bit of suspicion crept over them, a sense of caution. They waited and listened for any signs of a threat returning. When none came, the two peeked out from behind their shelter. Out of sheer experience and reflexes, their eyes first landed on the smoking barrel of a gun. Next they landed on the owner of said gun: a half-lion, half-man creature, a furry like one sees on the shadier parts of the Internet. Lastly, they settled on their friends sitting behind the lion-man, on top of an elephant that had its tusks stuck in backwards for some sadistical reason. "No objections to me shooting that thing?" the lion asked the goth.

"Nope, can't think of anything, had it coming, good riddance," came the dark reply. To Robin and Starfire, the whole thing suddenly made perfect sense. It had been one of those days, when Dogstar Sirius chases Libra into the Ogre constellation, or whatever heavenly mayhem would cause such a string of events. There was no point in making any sense of it, because in real life, you simply don't get sense or morals to your story, and certainly not handed to you on a silver plate.

"Wow," Robin said to the man on the backwards elephant," you look like someone with an interesting story to tell."

In the end, life does not offer spectacular and legendary episodes. There are no thick plots and dénouements. You just get 'those days'. And it doesn't matter how you feel about them, because they jump up at you regardless of your sentiment. So, as any mostly sane superhero would do, Robin just smiled at the whole situation and decided that his troubles, as well as Star's, could wait until they were breathing their own air again.

TTTTTTT

"Well, I dunno about you, but I could get used to this," Beast Boy admired the sights of the forest in his makeshift hammock. The little fluffballs knew how to treat visitors, apparently.  
"It's not bad, but I just wish I was in one piece," Cyborg replied before taking another sip of what he hoped was the local equivalent of lemonade.  
"Piece, Shalaa!" the forest resounded.

TTTTTTT

Epilogue

Somewhere in the Galaxy, a CEO was sweating. Somewhere else, there was a bunch of intergalactic tourists, with the obligatory tour guide, heading towards an artificial planet. It was modelled after the home of four legendary birds, but all you ever really saw were factory-made bio-replicas, reputedly a dime a dozen on the plane- factory planet Magrathea, but extremely rare and valuable everywhere else. You can imagine the general surprise, then, when the Maximegalonian tourists were met by two ships taking off, one towing the other. The towing one contained a lion-man, the towed one bore a bunch of kids who, the concensus was, must have run away to join the circus.

Neither ship seemed to notice the tourists, which saved all the occupants from a horrid death of embarrassment.

End of Chapter 27


End file.
